


Rogue One: Another Side, Another Story

by Anath_Tsurugi



Series: The Dark Side of the Moon [1]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Battlefield Flirting, F/F, F/M, Ghost crew during Rogue One, Intent to corrupt a minor, Mind Rape, Multi, Rebelcaptain - Freeform, Rule 63, Rule 63 Everyone, because that's a tag now, kalluzeb - Freeform, spiritassassin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-04-25 14:20:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 49,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14380434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anath_Tsurugi/pseuds/Anath_Tsurugi
Summary: "That is your given name, is it not? Jin Erso, son of Gaila Erso.""This is Captain Cassia Andor. Rebel Intelligence.""Beni. Rook. Cargo pilot. Local girl, huh?"Or...what does Rogue One look like with all of the characters gender-flipped?





	1. Tell Me a Story

**Author's Note:**

> So I picked this idea up from a prompt over on the R1 kink meme a little over a year ago. Unfortunately, it took me awhile to get around to it, but the idea stuck with me. Because hey, who isn't curious to see what the Star Wars universe looks like completely gender flipped? So here's our little starter. Let's see what you all think. :)

**Chirrin and Ambeiza**

"Chirrin! Get back here this instant! _Chirrin!_ "

Seven-year-old Chirrin Îmwe giggled madly as she raced through the temple corridors, clutching at the sack she held under one arm. She had the advantage in this chase and there was no way she was giving it up.

"Chirrin, you horrid little womp rat! If you don't stop right where you are, you're going to be scrubbing the kitchen floors until you're older than Master Hava! _Stop!_ "

"Don't make promises you can't keep!" Chirrin sang as she ran. Risking a glance behind her, she could see that the cook was falling behind, huffing for breath as he quickly lost ground. It wouldn't be long before she was in the clear.

That one glance back, however, caused the young girl not to see the obstacle that awaited her around the next corner until it was much too late.

Chirrin crashed directly into another body, sending both of them tumbling to the stone floor. Hardly taking notice, the girl quickly picked herself up, making certain her prize was still secure.

"Hey!" her unfortunate victim shouted, catching her eyes before Chirrin had the chance to dart off. It was another little girl, not much older than Chirrin herself. She was dressed in a worn traveller's cloak and the tight braids her long hair was kept in had been mussed in the collision. She looked ready to spit fire in her anger but, for some reason, Chirrin found something amusing in that anger. Before the new girl could say anything, Chirrin offered her a hand to help her up.

"Run," she said with an easy smile.

"Huh?" the new girl mumbled in confusion, staring at the offered hand uncomprehendingly.

"Run!" she repeated gleefully as she seized the girl's hand and pulled her up, breaking into a run before her new companion was even properly on her feet. Chirrin's pursuer was just a few steps behind them.

"What are you doing?!" the other girl shouted as they ran, but she never stopped. She kept ahold of Chirrin's hand, managing to keep pace with her, maybe even accelerating her a little bit. Whatever it was, the pair managed to pull out ahead of their pursuer, leaving the old cook in the dust.

When they raced out of the temple and down into the sacred groves, Chirrin quickly pulled the new girl off to the side and down to a small spot where the stone foundation had crumbled away. The hollowed out space beneath had always been large enough for Chirrin, but with the new girl it was definitely a bit more of a tight fit. When she started to speak, Chirrin quickly covered her mouth with her hand, glancing back outside. She kept that hand in place until she'd watched the cook go by, sweeping out into the groves to search for them. Chirrin giggled quietly as she let her hand fall away.

"That was fun."

"I…you…wha-…who do you think you are?" the new girl finally managed to demand in a huff. "You can't just go around knocking people over and then telling them to run. What did you even get me into?"

"Chirrin Îmwe," she responded with a lopsided grin.

The girl stared back at her for several moments, face shifting slowly from anger back into confusion before she finally mumbled out, "What?"

"If you ask more than one question at once, you cannot be surprised when you receive your answers out of order," Chirrin replied sagely. "At least, that's what the masters tell me. You asked me who I thought I was. I _think_ I am Chirrin Îmwe, but that's just my own view on things. Though, really, what can I give you but my own point of view?" Chirrin wondered, only half to the new girl, who just offered a sideways glance and a raised eyebrow. "As to what I've got you involved in, here. Share in the fruits of our labor," she said as she slipped a piece of ripe miru fruit from the bag in her arms and offered it to the new girl.

"Great," the girl said with a pained sigh. "I've gotten myself mixed up with the temple thief. Great way to start off," she said just before her stomach growled rather loudly. Chirrin offered her an encouraging smile as she continued to offer her the piece of fruit.

"Whether it is or not, you won't get very far on an empty stomach. You might as well eat," she said, grabbing herself a piece of the delicious ripe fruit and beginning to munch on it.

Growling and shaking her head, the girl finally sighed and took the fruit, contemplating it for a few moments before taking a bite. Chirrin could see the exact moment her demeanor changed as the flavor burst in her mouth.

"I can't even remember the last time I had fresh fruit," she groaned through another mouthful, chin already sticky with the fruit's red juice.

"See why it might be worth lifting a bag every once in a while?" Chirrin asked, grinning at the wry smirk the girl responded with, but that amusement was quickly tempered with a pair of narrowed eyes.

"How much is every once in a while? Mitz said he didn't want me getting back into old habits."

Chirrin shrugged as she carefully scooped the bountiful seedpod from within the fruit, slowly plucking out each and every one of the seeds. "Few times a year, I guess. Keeps us all at the top of our game. Is that why they sent you here, though? Community service?"

The girl looked at her oddly for several moments before responding with an uncertain, "Not…exactly? I mean…got a bit of a record, but it's not…my mom's dead."

Chirrin could tell from the slight widening of her eyes that she hadn't meant to go quite that far, but Chirrin had found that she seemed to have that effect on people. They liked to tell her things. Chirrin didn't much like the notion of abusing that trust with this potential new friend, so she decided to tread a little more carefully.

"Ward of the temple?" she asked the girl as she plucked a new fruit from the bag, inspecting it for the perfect place to bite into.

"What if I am?" the girl snapped back, apparently trying to cover for her earlier show of weakness.

"Then you'll join the rest of us wards while they look for your family. Maybe you've got a father somewhere," Chirrin said with a shrug, shifting her attention between the girl and the fruit.

"Heh, I haven't got one of those," the girl responded with an indifferent shrug of her own. "Not that Mom ever told me. Maybe she didn't even know."

"Then you'll stay here with us. That's what happened with me. I was left on the temple steps. They don't even bother looking for other family when that happens," Chirrin explained as she went about gathering the seeds from her second miru.

"So…no idea who your family is?" the girl couldn't seem to help asking.

"Well…they say my father was a Guardian…one of the greatest – Korrin Îmwe. I'm going to be like him one day," she declared proudly.

"And…your mom?" the girl pressed.

It was at this point that Chirrin would usually start spinning stories – an enforcer for one of the local security outfits, a navigator on a spice freighter, a bounty hunter notorious from the core worlds to the Outer Rim, a holo star on Coruscant, even a fallen Jedi knight on days she was feeling particularly adventurous. Chirrin loved to tell stories. Truth and untruth were of little consequence to her. Somehow, though, she got the feeling there was nothing she could say to this girl that would shock or amaze her. Maybe something else entirely had guided her footsteps to the kitchens this morning?

"Like I said, left on the steps. You know, I can't just keep thinking of you as 'girl' in my head," she pointed out.

The girl raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?"

"You know my name. I don't know yours yet. I assume you have one?" she prodded.

The girl stared at her for several silent moments before responding with a single word.

"Beiz."

"Just Beiz? Nothing else?"

"That's all _you_ need to call me. My _name_ is Ambeiza Malbus," Beiz said with a glare, throwing her name out like a challenge; and that was exactly what it was. Even Chirrin had heard the stories of Druzale Malbus, the infamous Black Sun assassin who had plagued Jedha's meager law enforcement so many years before. But she had never heard any stories of her having a daughter – and that was probably the point.

"Then it's nice to meet you, Beiz Malbus," she said, reaching out her free hand to properly shake the other girl's. Beiz's eyes darted mistrustfully between her hand and her grinning face for a long moment, no doubt having been prepared for the name to send Chirrin running the other way.

"It doesn't- bother you?"

"You obviously don't know how rare it is for someone to actually listen when I tell them to run. I think you and me can get along."

Beiz considered her for several more minutes before ultimately returning the handshake. In years to come, she would often joke that she would've been better off not taking that hand, and it was certainly true, but it hardly meant that a single word of those jokes was ever sincere.

XxX

**Cassia**

Seven-year-old Cassia wiped the muck from her forehead as she slogged through the swamp, trying to keep her breathing under control as she moved. Most little girls would have stopped to rest by now, or just not been there in the first place.

Cassia Andor was not most little girls.

" _There's a spark inside of you, mi angelita,"_ her mother had declared proudly, even as she lay dying. _"You must never let it die. Never let it burn out."_

Cassia had taken those words to heart. Maybe she couldn't wield a blaster or man a heavy mortar like her three big brothers, but she was no less a fighter. When none of the couriers could get through the swamps without being picked off by Imperial forces, Cassia had been quick to volunteer. She _knew_ she could get places others couldn't. Even if she were captured, who was going to suspect a little girl?

" _Mama would kill me if she knew I was even_ _ **considering**_ _this,"_ her oldest brother had said to her as he was tucking her into her cot. Relio was the leader of their cell and it was down to him to make the difficult choices.

" _I can do it!"_ she'd pleaded, trying to sit up, but he'd pushed her back down again, movements gentle but firm as he pulled her ratty blanket over her. _"Please, Lio, I want to help. Let me help."_

" _I shouldn't,"_ he'd said, face torn by more emotions than Cassia had names for. _"What sort of brother would that make me? To send my baby sister out into the killing fields…"_

" _One who's a leader,"_ she'd said proudly as she'd looked up at him. _"One who knows why we fight. No one else can do it. You_ _ **know**_ _I can get through, Sarge. You_ _ **hafta**_ _let me try,"_ she'd argued, knowing that reminding him of his rank might be the only thing that could change his mind.

And she'd been right. She'd felt Lio tense against her as he'd leaned down to kiss her goodnight. When he'd pulled back, his face had been resigned. _"All right, soldier, we'll give it a try. But I want you to promise me if disruptor fire hits even half a klick from you, you're going to turn right back around."_

" _Promise."_

The only promise to her brother she _hadn't_ kept, of course. Blaster fire had struck much closer than that, but she'd never turned back. She'd been afraid, but she'd kept going, and she'd made it through the Imperial line that divided the Horuz swamplands, reaching their contact in the city – Talena. Like Cassia, the old woman would never be suspected of having rebel sympathies, so it was easier for Talena to sneak intel and supplies right under the Imperials' noses. Whenever Cassia made the dangerous trek across the line, Talena always saw that she was decently fed and then sent her back laden with ammunition, supplies, and news. It was never much, but it was at least enough to bolster Horuz's fledgling rebel cells.

Tonight wasn't just a supply run, though. No. Tonight she was carrying a message. She'd already managed to make it past three patrols. She was so close now. They _needed_ her to get through!

The Imperials had been jamming communications between the rebel factions for weeks now. Rumors were circulating that they were being picked off one by one. Their own unit had received more concrete proof of the rumors in the form of a survivor of one such attack. Akan had barely escaped with his life. Armed with that knowledge, Lio had sent her to try and get word to the other factions, to present the burgeoning Empire with a more united front.

Cassia would have breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached the sewage drain off that would allow her access to Spayre City, except that she knew better than to breathe too deeply here. She was out of danger, small enough to be able to take the sewer lines into the city where none of the others had been able to, but it was undoubtedly the most unpleasant part of the trek. She would just have to do her best not to breathe too much on the way through.

" _Maybe you ought to take up with a bantha herd,"_ Dezi, the youngest of her older brothers, would always tease whenever she came back from assignment. _"You always smell like the wrong end of one when you come back."_

" _Why don't_ _ **you**_ _climb through a sewer pipe and see how_ _ **you**_ _smell,"_ she'd snap back, nose in the air, despite the fact it was only about as high as her brother's chest. Whether or not she could actually look down her nose at Dezi, she was never going to just let him tease her.

" _And drag these lovely flowing locks and fair skin through all that muck?"_ he'd jibe with a showy toss of his head. _"Forget that."_

" _That's what I thought, pretty boy,"_ she'd snip back, always on Dezi for the vanity that was only partly a joke. Pretty boy or not, no one had ever manned a disruptor cannon better than Dezi Andor. And their middle brother, Luneil, would always watch their bickering without comment, offering up his own silent brand of laughter. The sniper never really had much to say, so when Luneil _did_ speak, he was listened to. Just before Cassia had departed on this desperate run, he'd pulled her into a tight hug.

" _Be careful,"_ he'd whispered insistently in her ear. _"You_ _ **must live.**_ _"_

Shaking away the thoughts of her brothers as she shimmied her way out of the sewer pipe, Cassia made the brief run to Talena's small apartment building. Even though she'd reached the city, there was still curfew to consider this late at night, and Talena had no shortage of sharp words for her on the subject.

"To send you in at _this_ hour," the old woman snarled quietly upon responding to Cassia's signal, quickly letting her into the building. "Your brother _has_ gone mad."

"No. This is important. It's _urgent,_ " Cassia insisted, not even waiting for her contact to lead the way up to her apartment. "We need to make contact."

"Hold up there, little miss. You've not refreshed or eaten yet. I'll not have you stinking up the place and giving yourself away. This isn't your ice planet. Scent actually lingers here."

"Then I'll clean your apartment when I'm done. There's no time to lose," she tried to explain as they entered Talena's small living quarters.

"All right. All right. What's the message?" the old woman pressed as she pulled a chair up to her antiquated comm system.

"The Empire really is trying to pick us all off. Now's the time. If we don't stand together, then we'll die alone," Cassia relayed, coming to grip the back of Talena's chair in trembling hands, only then permitting herself to remember the look of terror in Akan's eyes as he'd recounted the destruction of his base.

"Lio Andor's poetry if ever I heard it," Talena said with a bitter chuckle as she worked to raise the nearest camp. "He really ought to start-"

Whatever the rest of her statement was, Cassia never got to hear it. The sudden heavy boom of proton bombs sounded in the distance and Cassia felt their force rattle the planet beneath them. Immediately, she felt her heart drop into her stomach.

_No. It_ _**can't** _ _be._

Before she was aware of even moving, Cassia found herself out on Talena's small balcony, eyes desperately scanning the distant skies as she _prayed_ not to see what she _knew_ she would.

Even from this distance, she could see how the night was lit with smoke and fire from the explosions. She could hardly imagine what they must be like up close – the air thick with ionization as trees and dirt and living beings crackled and caught fire moments before vaporizing entirely.

_Lio. Luneil. Dezi._

"No," she choked out, slowly backing away from the sight. But then she was running, dashing headlong out of Talena's apartment. " _NO!_ "

"Cassia, stop! _Come back!_ " Talena shouted after her, but she didn't listen. She kept running, right down into the street. Forget the sewer. She was going to fling herself straight at the city gates and kill any stormtrooper that tried to stop her. Maybe her brothers were still alive. Maybe she could still help them.

_Please. No. You_ _**can't** _ _be dead. You can't leave me like Mama and Papa did!_

The only sound she could hear as she raced down the street was the pounding of her own heart in her ears. The distant thunder from the continued explosions didn't even register. All she could think of was the sight of her annoying, foolhardy, beloved brothers caught in an explosion – Lio's stalwart amber eyes boiling, Dezi's precious hair catching fire, Luneil's skin cracking and roasting, all in a single hideous moment of agony before they all just fizzled out of existence, with not even a pile of ash to mark their lives.

Cassia didn't realize she was coming up on a checkpoint. Nothing penetrated the haze she was running through until a body crashed into her, arms wrapping around her as they went crashing to the ground.

"NO! _NOOO!_ " she shrieked like a creature gone mad, fingers scrabbling desperately at the rough pavement, scraping until they bled. " _Let me go! LET ME GO!_ "

"Stop, Cassia. _Stop!_ " Talena pleaded with her, a thread of pity and pain weaving through her voice that the little girl couldn't bear to acknowledge. "It's too late. It's already done. You can't help them now."

Cassia already knew that. She'd known it from the moment the distant thunder had pierced her ears, but to admit that to herself was just too painful. To admit to what she'd lost…it meant she was truly alone in the galaxy. So, even as Talena carried her back to her home, she continued to struggle in the old woman's arms, screaming desperately for the only family she still had left.

"Dez! Luneil! _Don't leave me here by myself! Lio! LIO!_ "

Later that night, as Cassia lay tucked in on Talena's couch, she just stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling of the apartment, her hands clenched tightly into fists. She hadn't resisted the old woman's attempts to get her into the refresher, or to bandage her injured hands. Talena had raised a cup to her mouth, but she wouldn't drink. She'd pressed food to her lips, but she wouldn't eat. She'd laid her down, but Cassia wouldn't sleep. She'd just lain there with the weight of her grief like a stone in her chest, and all the while, that grief had hardened into rage.

Could things have been different if she'd been faster? Been better? _Something?_

Had they known? Had they sent her out knowing she would fail…just to keep her safe? Why? Why would they save her just to leave her alone?

Would she ever be able to forget the feel of her own blood beneath her fingernails? Her brothers' blood?

No. None of that mattered. It didn't matter because _she_ wasn't the reason her brothers were dead. Her family…Mama…Papa…Lio, Luneil, and Dezi…they were all dead because they said 'no'. When the Empire asked for compliance they wouldn't give, they'd all stood firm and declared they would rather die than bow to that kind of power. The Empire, the Republic, the clones, the Jedi…at the end of the day, wasn't it all the same? Power that demanded total obedience?

Well…now it was Cassia's turn to decide. She already knew she would say 'no', but was it because she believed in something the Empire couldn't take away…or simply because she hated them? Hated them for taking away everything she loved? She didn't really know. She just knew that if this hate in her heart wasn't directed somewhere, it was going to kill her, and that couldn't happen yet. It wasn't until she noticed Talena holding her that she realized she was crying.

"I hate them!" she sobbed into Talena's chest as the old woman stroked back her hair. "I hate them and I'll _never forgive them!_ "

And for the life of her, Cassia didn't know if she meant her brothers or the monsters who'd killed them.

XxX

**Beni**

If Beni Rook were honest with herself, she would have to say that she didn't really remember a time before the Occupation.

She remembered _people_ being different. She remembered her mother's smile, her brothers' pranks, Alini's singing. She remembered their neighbors talking, laughing, calling out to each other as they headed off to work or to market in the morning. Life in the holy city of NiJedha had never been easy, but it hadn't exactly been harsh either.

But then the stormtroopers began to patrol the streets. Laughter was replaced by the sounds of armored boots striking the stone pathways. Lively chatter dimmed to angry mumbling and frightened whispering. The way her older sister had once described it to her was that it was like a light going out. The shining star at the heart of NiJedha had been dimmed, banked down to a thing barely flickering. Beni had always liked to _think_ she'd understood Alini's words, but it was hard to say. All she really seemed to know was that people had once been happy, but now they were not. They were afraid - afraid of this far, distant thing called the Empire.

While the nine-year-old could only vaguely grasp the full effect this Empire had on her life, one thing she _did_ understand was that kids were always going to find ways to play, even when the world around them was so frightening. Her brothers were certainly no exception, and it seemed _she_ was always going to be their favorite target.

"Keep away from Beni!" Arran shouted for all the market to hear, holding aloft his prize as the three younger Rook boys took off with him.

"Bring those back _right now!_ " Beni howled, feeling her face go red with rage as she leaped after them. A five second head start probably wouldn't seem like much to most people, but in the crowded streets of NiJedha, it was practically life or death; and in Beni's case, that might prove literal if her idiot brothers damaged her treasure in any way.

"Catch us if you can, little Ben-Ben!" the second oldest, Gerrit, teased as Arran tossed the coveted object his way, spurring Beni to alter her charge mid stride and lose her momentum. She'd barely managed to begin the new pursuit when Gerrit tossed her precious treasure to the next brother.

"Khemiya, I swear, if anything happens to those goggles, I'm gonna pitch your models over the outer wall! I'll burn every last hair off your body!" she screeched, ducking around a moving fruit cart in an attempt to cut her brother off.

"You gotta catch me first, Ben-Ben!" he jibed right back, whirling about to head in a completely different direction.

"You don't want to know what's gonna happen when I _do!_ "

"Oh, yeah? I won't even- _oof,_ " Khem's taunt was abruptly cut off when he crashed directly into a monk, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

"Ach! Darn it, Khem!" Arran snarled.

"I've got you now!" Beni crowed in triumph as she closed in.

"Zev's open, Khem! Get a move on!" Gerrit shouted to him.

Looking desperately in every direction, Khem finally threw the flight goggles when he saw the youngest of the Rook brothers jumping up and down halfway down the next row of stalls.

" _NO!_ " Beni screamed when she saw her treasure go arcing through the air. There was no way clumsy little Zev would be able to catch them.

Zev seemed to realize this mere seconds after she did and made a desperate dive forward, only just managing to catch the goggles before they could smash against the dusty street.

Beni dropped to her knees in shocked relief at the sight, giving Khem the chance to jump up and run away with the others. Seeing her six-year-old brother scramble up out of the dust and disappear into the crowd caused a fresh stab of anger to shoot through her.

"Darn you, Zev! _I changed your diapers!_ " she shouted after him in frustration.

"They never are grateful, are they," the monk said from where she was still situated on the ground.

"Oh, oh...I- I'm..." the girl stuttered for several moments, seriously considering leaving the holy woman in the dust and continuing her pursuit of her brothers, but ultimately deciding against it. She already had an 'illegal operation of an airspeeder' count on her record. She didn't need some sort of disorderly conduct mark there, too. Shifting to one knee so she could stand, she offered the monk her hand. "I'm so sorry, Master. We're- just a pack of wild animals."

The monk shook her head, chuckling quietly as she shifted her legs to sit cross-legged in the middle of the street. "There are worse things to be in a galaxy gone mad, little one. Come. Sit with me."

Beni glanced nervously all around them, trying to spot merchants or shoppers who might be annoyed with them, but really, it was almost as if no one noticed them there.

"Don't worry. People are hardly going to take exception to a blind beggar taking up space in the Holy City. Rest for a moment. Let go of that anger."

Beni eyed the woman warily up and down as she shifted into a sitting position beside her. This woman looked to be many things, but she wasn't sure beggar was one of them. She was clothed in the robes of one of the city's religious orders, simple red and black. Beni couldn't remember exactly which order it was. The Guardians? The Brotherhood? It was difficult to keep track of which cults were technically legal anymore. As for blind, that was a difficult call to make, as she couldn't really make out any of the monk's features beneath the black cowl she wore. But apparently her assessment took too long, because the woman began to speak again.

"You are suspicious."

"How would you know what I'm feeling...if you can't see me?"

"A person would have to be deaf and a moron as well as blind _not_ to know that the young lady screaming at her brothers is angry, and I can feel your hesitation in the space beside me. You are not as unreadable a stone wall as you might believe, Beni."

"How did you-"

"Your brothers were shouting your name for all the quarter to hear, child," the monk pointed out, her head tilting to the side in an almost wry fashion. "I would not be surprised if the garrison that arrived this morning knew your name by now."

"Right," Beni muttered, feeling her face flush in embarrassment. "I'll be sure to put itching powder in their food tonight."

"You know they only do these things _because_ you react in anger, don't you?" the monk pointed out. "If you do not give them the reaction they want, they will quickly lose interest in their games."

"I _know_ that," she growled in frustration before reminding herself to take a few calming breaths. "Alini's always telling me to just ignore them, but...it's hard. How am I supposed to just let them run off with the only thing in the world that means anything to me?"

"What is it they took from you, if I may?"

By the time she'd reminded herself that this woman couldn't see her, Beni had already looked away from her. "It's silly. I know it is."

"Nothing you give your whole heart to is silly, Beni. Believe me. You can tell me."

"Well...it's a pair of flight goggles. They're not anything special...not really. They're even starting to fall apart. I'm being stupid, I know...but..."

"But...?" the woman prompted when she didn't continue.

"They...belonged to Jestra...my father's partner."

"Your father?"

"Yes. Zeri Rook. He- made cargo runs for the Republic during the wars. He was captain of a ship...and Jestra was his pilot. They were killed over Ryloth during the Separatist sieges," she recounted, almost as if she were reading the information from a textpad.

"My condolences," the monk said softly.

"It's all right," she rushed to reassure the woman. "Well- no. It's not. Not really. I know it's been tough on my family, but...I don't really remember my dad too well. I was three when he died. But I _do_ remember that last time they were home. Jestra gave me her goggles, said she needed new ones. It wasn't really- that it was the last time I saw them. It was what she said...that last time," she tried to explain. She'd never really been able to, and her big sister was the only one she'd ever _tried_ to tell any of this to.

"And what was that?"

"I always loved flying. Even back then. Jestra took me with her a few times. She said I'd fly on my own someday...that I'd leave Jedha behind one day. She said that...once I got my own wings I could go anywhere I wanted...that I'd be _free._ She said not to let anything stop me. I keep those goggles because I don't want to forget what she said. I want those words to be true. They're- precious to me," she said, staring down at her hands as she came to a fumbling halt. She couldn't remember ever having said something so true about herself to anyone other than Alini. What must this woman think of her? A scrappy little nobody with hardly any past - and no future.

"Well, _have_ youever forgotten what Jestra said to you?" her one woman audience asked her.

"I...well...I guess not," she admitted after several moments of thought.

"Then you never will. Her words will be with you always. But perhaps all you really need to make her words true is that little bit of inspiration."

Beni might have responded to the holy woman's words, except that was the moment the now familiar sound of stormtrooper boots pounding against the stone suddenly crowded out the regular afternoon sounds, causing the people to scatter in an effort to make way for the white-armored soldiers.

As Beni leapt clear of the unexpected procession, she caught a glimpse of what had gotten the cadre so riled up. Several of the soldiers had her brothers in custody, each boy looking every bit the penitent wrong-doer.

Gerrit was the last of her brothers to be marched past her and when he caught sight of her, he offered her an apologetic look. On his way by, he managed to slip her the goggles without the troopers noticing.

Well, whatever her brothers had gotten up to after escaping her, she certainly wanted no part of it. And whether the troopers were simply escorting the rowdy delinquents home or if they were actually being arrested, who could say, but she would enjoy reporting it all to their older sister.

"Guess I didn't have to-" she started to say to the monk as she turned back to look at her, only to realize that the woman had disappeared into the crowd. She looked around several times, but she could find no trace of the woman she'd only just been speaking to. If Khem hadn't crashed into her earlier, Beni might almost question if she'd ever even seen the holy woman at all.

She hadn't even been able to ask her her name.

 _Well, whoever you are...I sure hope you're right,_ Beni thought to herself as she secured the flight goggles back around her neck, taking the opportunity to gaze up at the sky through the crumbling, spiraling towers of NiJedha.

No. She didn't care _what_ it took. One day, she was going to touch that sky. She would do whatever she had to. One day, Beni Rook was going to have wings of her own.

No matter what.

XxX

**Jin**

Jin Erso sighed dramatically as he scuffed his boots against the black sand of the beach.

It wasn't that the four-year-old expected his grumping to actually gain him anything. It was more from a desire to _do_ something, to vent his feelings in some way. He hadn't complained when they'd left Coruscant. He hadn't protested having to leave his friends behind. He hadn't even complained about leaving all his toys behind. He'd understood that something was wrong, so he hadn't complained, and where had all that not complaining gotten him? Alone on a barely inhabited rock of a planet with nothing to call his own.

Everything Jin had known was gone, and even though Papa had told him to be brave, not to let Mama see how sad he was, he couldn't help wanting to express that sadness and anger in _some_ way, so he kicked even harder at the sand.

Jin moved closer to the shore until the sand became more like mud and he kicked large clumps of it into the air. He grunted and cried with the effort of it as angry tears began to trickle down his face.

No! No crying! He'd promised Papa he wouldn't cry! But...what was there to be happy about anymore? Unable to stop the flood of tears now that they'd started, he sobbed as he kicked wet sand into the air, and he kept on kicking until he'd completely exhausted himself – until his little legs gave out on him and he found himself sitting on the disturbed terrain with mud and sand clinging to his rough clothing. He thought he'd managed to cry all his tears, but then he heard his mother.

"Jin?"

The little boy rolled over in the sand to look at Mama, only to see the small smile drop from her face when she saw the state her son was in. It didn't matter how hard he tried to stop crying. That tiny, devastated look on Mama's face brought on a fresh wave of tears. He buried his face in the sand to keep her from seeing, but it didn't work.

"What are you doing?" she asked quietly as she sat down beside him, laying a hand on his head, but he flinched away from the touch.

"'m sorry," he mumbled against the gritty surface. "I know 'm not- supposed to cry."

"Who told you that?"

"P- Papa. H- he said that- I had to be b- brave."

"And you have been, my Stardust. No boy could have been braver, to do the things we've asked of you without complaint. You've been _so_ brave. But being brave isn't about never crying," Mama explained, reaching to pull him into her lap. This time, he didn't protest.

"Then...what _is_ it about?" he asked, looking up at her with a tear and mud-streaked face.

"It's about doing what you need to do in spite of those tears. The important thing is, even when you're afraid, or sad, or angry, taking it in stride and taking a step forward anyway," she told him as she started to wipe the mud from his face. "You've done that. You've always taken one more step forward. If you ever feel like you can't handle something, all you need to do is focus on that next step forward. So Jin, from here, what's the next step?"

As Jin looked up at his mother, he could feel a tiny smile lift the corners of his mouth. Mama could always do that. Even though she couldn't be around all the time, she could always make Jin smile when she was.

"Well," he started with a hiccup, "I did have to leave my toys behind."

"You did at that," his mother said with a small laugh. "So we'll have to do something about that. We'll start from scratch, build you a whole new army of toys, and I think we'll start right here with this little one," she said as she pulled something from within the folds of her tunic. When Jin twisted in her arms to see what his mother had presented him with, he saw a very simply built doll that was made to look like a stormtrooper.

"Ooh!" he squealed in excitement, but before he could reach for the toy, he found himself glancing guiltily up at his mother. "But...didn't Papa say they were bad?"

"Indeed they are, but every brave hero needs something to triumph over, doesn't he?" his mother posited as she handed him the doll. "That's how all the stories begin – a villain appears to take everything you love away from you..."

When Mama didn't continue, Jin stopped examining his new toy to look up at her. Mama's eyes were far away. Jin looked off in the direction of her gaze, but he couldn't see anything she might be looking at. Whatever it was, he supposed he just couldn't see it.

"Mama?" he started, holding up the new doll. "Wanna play with my new toy?"

His mother blinked several times before looking back down at him, her eyes finally coming back from wherever they'd been. Then she smiled at him.

"Of course, Stardust. What shall we play?"

"We'll play 'Escape'," Jin declared in excitement as he hopped up from his mother's lap. It took Mama a few more minutes to climb to her feet, but Jin was already off like a shot, streaking away across the beach with his new toy swinging wildly through the air.

Knowing full well that Mama was following, Jin led the way up into the hills, not back toward their new farm, but off into the rockier, unsettled territory further out on their land. Only this morning, this same landscape had looked lonely and empty and desolate, but now, with a new friend in tow, it was suddenly a great big world to explore and play in.

Once Jin had reached his desired spot, he settled his new toy (Stormie, his name was Stormie) atop a pair of boulders with great ceremony. Then he easily scrambled off the rocks, slipping down to the side to wait for his mother to catch up. When she finally did, she quickly caught sight of the tiny wooden trooper's position, dropping to her knees to crawl the rest of the way to Jin's hidden perch beneath the boulders.

"What are we escaping from?" Mama whispered.

"From the Empire soldiers. Just like we did back home. Want you to follow me and do just like I do," Jin whispered back.

Though she was still crouched over, Mama managed to offer him a firm salute and a stern expression. "Yessir."

"All right. Keep quiet," Jin ordered, raising a finger to his lips and grinning before making his next move.

The boulders were positioned just above a steep hill that rolled down into a narrow ravine. Struggling to suppress a giggle, Jin rolled down the hill, head spinning round with the world even after he'd reached the bottom.

Mama reached the bottom just a few moments after him, but when he heard the beginnings of a laugh, he scrambled over to her and placed a hand over her mouth.

"Shh," he insisted.

Mama nodded, her eyes twinkling with excitement, and once Jin was sure she was going to be quiet he began to crawl down the ravine, occasionally sneaking glances back up at Stormie and ducking down when he felt certain the stormtrooper might be watching.

Following the ravine around a natural curve, Jin discovered a cave mouth in one of the hillsides. Gasping in excitement, he quickly scuttled forward into the cave. Once inside, he was pleased to discover a large scattering of big rocks along its back wall.

"This can be our secret base," Jin declared in an enthusiastic whisper, climbing in and around the small boulders. "They'll never find us here."

"I think you're right," Mama whispered back, crawling to the rear of the cave and settling in among the small boulders. "This will be a very good hiding place."

"I hear 'em," Jin said as he crawled over to his mother, cuddling in beside her. "The stormtroopers. They're coming. Do you hear the blasters, Mama?"

"Yes," his mother whispered sharply, and when Jin looked up at her, for a moment it didn't seem like she was playing. For just a moment, there was real fear in her eyes.

"Mama?" he started again, tugging on her tunic, and when she looked down at him with a flickering sort of half smile, he offered up a brave smile of his own. "Don't be scared, Mama. It's just a game. If the stormtroopers ever _do_ come, I'll protect you. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise."

At his words, his mother's smile blossomed fully and she ruffled his hair before leaning down to kiss the top of his head.

"I believe you...my brave Stardust," she said, pulling Jin into a tight hug.

"Jin!" Papa's voice suddenly sounded in the distance. "Gaila!"

"It's Papa!" Jin started in excitement, hopping up from Mama's embrace. "We need to tell him about the cave we found. Then we can _all_ hide from the soldiers."

"Absolutely. You go on ahead. I'll be along in a moment," his mother told him, slowly getting back to her feet.

"Okay," Jin answered, off like a shot once again.

If Jin had looked back, he might've seen the extra look of sadness in his mother's eyes, might've seen her look around the cave, beginning to mentally plan and measure to make a true hiding place of their little out of the way space.

But Jin did not look back and he didn't see all the ways his mother continued to protect him, to shield him from their true peril. He did not see his mother beginning to plan for the day when it wasn't a game anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good? Bad? Awful? Meh? Any interest in seeing how this changes things?


	2. Carry Your Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All righty, glad to see everyone'e excited for this world. I should give you fair warning, the story's not going to be massively different at the start. We'll get set up, but things aren't really going to start changing until we get to Eadu. I should also mention I've caught myself mis-gendering whilst working on this one, so if you happen to notice any slips I didn't catch, do let me know.

Early on in her life, if someone had asked Gaila Erso if she was happy, she honestly wouldn't have understood the question.

As a child, she hadn't understood that her family was poor, that her _world_ was poor. She had only seen a world full of problems and with the power of her intellect and imagination, it was a world full of problems she'd been quite certain she could solve. She hadn't been aware of the disparity between her own mental acuity and everyone else's. It had always seemed to her that she just had a different way of looking at the world. Her mother had always kept her well-supplied with work for her growing mind, she'd done well in school, and so far as she knew, it was the only way the world could be.

It wasn't until she'd been selected for schooling offworld that the discrepancies in the galaxy had begun to reveal themselves to her – the gaps between the advanced and the primitive, the rich and the poor. Even then, she'd been an optimistic young scientist, thinking that all it would take to make the galaxy a better place was the right combination of theorems and solutions – despite the fact that the galaxy seemed to keep doing its level best to prove her wrong.

Really, it hadn't been until Leeran had come into her life that the concepts of happy and unhappy had started to have meaning for her. She'd always been 'happy' so long as she'd had some form of problem to work on. But then along had come that fiery, passionate young guide on her survey of Espinar, changing everything in the blink of an eye.

Leeran's intensity had changed something in Gaila, had drawn out an answering passion she hadn't even known she was capable of, and the notion of a life without him was the first thing that had made her understand what it might be like to be unhappy. Unable to even conceive of such a notion, the whirlwind pace of their romance had quickly escalated to the next level and Gaila was suddenly introducing her fiery lover as her husband.

Then, just when it seemed to her her life couldn't hold one more bit of happiness, along had come her beautiful baby boy, her precious Stardust.

Jin.

Indeed, _she'd_ been so happy, she'd hardly noticed how the galaxy was starting to come undone all around them. With the start of the war, there was plenty of work or a great mind like hers. She'd always liked to believe that the Galactic Senate truly had the best interests of its people at heart, no matter how much it might seem to be at odds with itself. She'd probably even deluded herself in that belief near the end, choosing instead to believe that her work with kyber crystals was being used for the betterment of her fellow beings – even though she _did_ notice the extra gleam in her old school friend's eyes whenever Orsina Krennic began talking about changing the galaxy with their work. She _did_ see how Orsina would attempt to hide her holoscreen whenever Gaila entered her office unannounced. She _had_ seen. She'd just chosen not to understand. She'd wanted to believe she was making a better world for her son and her husband.

But the time had come when she could no longer ignore the monster she was bolstering, the galaxy she was _truly_ building for her precious family. That was when she'd agreed to let Leeran reach out to his old war comrade, Sade Gerrera. Much as she loved Leeran, she had always abhorred violence and, as such, had been wary of her husband's friendship with the partisan warrior, though she certainly didn't question it when those selfsame connections had managed to get her and her family off of Coruscant and out from under the thumb of her increasingly controlling former friend.

Finally safe on the nearly forgotten world of Lah'mu, Gaila had begun to feel that she'd really begun to rekindle that old spark of happiness in this simple life of theirs. Solving the problems of their own farm, as well as those of the neighboring homesteads, had taken her right back to her youth, when she'd had nothing more to do than to make better toys and more efficient speeders. Jin was finally beginning to adjust and Leeran was born for frontier-living, no matter the planet. And once again, that quiet joy had only increased when she'd told Leeran of their happy accident, getting to share the news with Jin – that he would be a big brother.

So, if asked once again if she was happy on this backwater world after the storied life she'd led thus far, Gaila Erso knew she would be able to answer with an unequivocal 'yes'. She had her work, she had her husband and her son, and soon she would be the mother of a lovely little girl. So yes, in spite of their ever present danger, she was happy.

Gaila was just six standard weeks from her due date when her scanners picked up Orsina's shuttle flying in low over the horizon.

XxX

Jin stumbled several times as he ran through the freshly-plowed fields, struggling to get back to the house. He _hoped_ the intruders hadn't spotted him, but Papa had taught him enough about stealth that he knew it was a possibility. He was gasping for breath by the time he tumbled down the stairs into their underground dwelling.

"Papa!" he shouted in warning.

"We know," his father's terse voice answered, seeming to come from everywhere at once as he raced about the house to gather up needed supplies. Mama was trying to help, but the bulge of her belly was preventing much movement. All she could really seem to do was waddle from place to place. Unable to lift one of the packs she'd prepared, she waved Jin in her direction.

"Jin, come here."

The boy quickly moved to answer his mother's call, faintly aware of his father's voice somewhere behind him, speaking to someone over the comms unit.

"Sade, it's Leeran. It's happened. She's come for us. Gaila's just a month out. I fear this will-"

A familiar huff of a laugh cut off his father's worried voice. "Calm down, Lee. You'd think this was your first reek roundup. She needs you to keep a cool head. You know what to do."

Whatever his father said in response, Jin didn't hear it. He became too focused on the feel of his mother loading the heavy pack onto his back. Then, leaning on his shoulders for support, she slowly lowered herself to her knees so she could look him in the eye.

"Jin, remember...whatever I do, I do it to protect you, you _and_ your sister. Say you understand," she pleaded with him, a desperate glint in her eyes that he couldn't fully comprehend.

"I- understand," he repeated, simply because she'd asked him to. "But...Mama...can't we _all_ protect her? I'm supposed to watch out for her."

His mother shook her head sadly as she brushed his damp curls back from his forehead, pressing a kiss to the sweaty skin. "I'm afraid you can't stop this, my son. The best thing you can do for your sister is to stay free," she said before pulling him into a fierce hug – like she was hugging him for the last time. "I love you, Stardust."

"I love you, too, Mama," he whispered back, hugging her as tightly as he could around her swollen belly.

"Gaila," his father's voice sounded behind him once again. "I can't _bear_ the thought of you going out there alone. Not like this. Not with the baby. You should go with Jin. Let me-"

"No, Lee," she returned, still clinging tightly to Jin. "Keep to the plan. It's _me_ she wants and you know it. I'm sure Sade will be able to find a way to get her out...once she's born. You have to go. _Now._ "

With that, Jin was relinquished to his father, rushed outside the back way and tugged down into the familiar ravine, where they'd run their escape drill a thousand times. But as the eight-year-old moved with the instinct of muscle memory, he suddenly realized his father had stopped following. Papa was frozen, staring back in the direction of the homestead.

"Papa?" Jin called uncertainly, reaching out for his hand.

After several tense moments, Leeran Erso finally shook his head. "No. I can't do it. I can't leave them. I _won't._ Jin," he started suddenly as he shifted to his knees before his son, reaching for one of the leather cords around his neck and removing a simple kyber pendant from around his throat. "You know where to go, don't you?"

Jin nodded as his father slung the pendent around _his_ neck. Of _course_ he knew the way, but why did it matter? They were going together.

Weren't they?

"Trust the Force," his father said to him, pressing a kiss to his forehead right next to Mama's before rising up on his feet and heading back in the direction they'd come.

Jin had had every intention of obeying his father's instructions. Really, he had. The last thing he was was a disobedient child. But for some reason, as he watched his father disappear back up the ravine, he got an ugly feeling that he couldn't shake – a feeling that he might not see his parents again if he let them go now. So, taking a different direction from Papa, he circled back to the place where Mama had gone to confront the intruders.

XxX

Gaila didn't imagine she looked very dignified as she exited the house, waddling awkwardly across the field to face her , dignity was not her aim today, although not for one second did she imagine she could inspire pity in her former friend.

Orsina Krennic stood out starkly, both from her entourage and from the black soil she strode across. Where her black-armored guard nearly blended into the landscape, the director of the Imperial weapons development program was displayed in her full officer regalia, her dress made all the whiter by the blackness surrounding her. As the director drew closer, Gaila could see the affable smile on her face. She was ashamed to admit that she'd once been taken in by such a show of false sincerity, but now she could see the cunning that lurked just beneath the other woman's smile.

Rather than giving Orsina the satisfaction of waddling all the way out to meet her, she stopped short, forcing her former friend to walk the final distance between them. For several silent moments, Orsina's gaze shifted between Gaila and her homestead.

"You're a hard woman to find, Gaila," she said, looking at Gaila as if she were scolding a wayward child. "But farming? Really? A woman of _your_ talents?"

"It's a peaceful life," she returned softly as she rested a hand against her swollen belly, struggling to look Orsina in the eye. If she looked away, her former friend would know immediately that she was lying.

"Lonely, I imagine."

Hesitating a moment, as if swallowing hard on the pain in the words, she responded with, "Since Lee died, yes."

"Oh," the other woman started, moving a few steps closer. Gaila couldn't quite read the look in her eyes. Put upon sympathy, certainly, but something more beneath that. Perhaps that Orsina couldn't quite believe she'd be so lucky as to have such a thing be true. "My condolences. But to leave you in such a condition as _this_ ," she continued, moving close enough to lay a hand against the swell of her belly. It took every ounce of Gaila's self-control not to jerk away from the touch. As if this woman had _any_ right. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's almost cruel. I don't see how you can _dream_ of remaining out here when you're clearly so close to giving birth, with no help to be had."

"The other settlers are decent folk. Besides, I- I couldn't bear to leave Lee here all alone...not without seeing his daughter at least once," she said. That, at least, was true, and, almost as if in some kind of response, her baby girl shifted heavily within her, kicking out against the hand on her belly.

Orsina's smile became almost predatory at the sensation. Nearly leering, she ran her hand possessively along the swell of the baby. "Ah. A little girl, is it. I'd always thought you should have a daughter, Gaila. You've too many men in your life. And this...Leeran's daughter..." she said, her voice trailing off as her expression hardened. Then her grip on the baby bump grew harder as she called back to her guard, "Search the house!"

"What is it you want?" Gaila asked, forcing herself to keep calm as several of the death troopers moved past her.

_They're safe. The troopers won't find them._

"The work has stalled," Orsina admitted, trying to be gentle again as she patted Gaila's belly, finally taking a step back. "I need you to come back."

"I won't do it, Orsina," was the mere tip of the asteroid of things she wanted to spew at the director. She wouldn't. She _couldn't._ To see her beautiful work used for something so horrific as...

"But we were on the verge of greatness. We were _this close_ \- to providing peace, security to the galaxy," Orsina tried to argue.

_If you thought greatness was what I wanted, then you never knew me at all, old friend._

"You're confusing peace with terror," she said instead, still fighting to keep her tone neutral. Perhaps she might still convince Orsina of her sincerity.

"Well...we have to start somewhere," the director returned with a smile that wasn't quite all there. No. There would be no convincing Orsina Krennic of anything. She was completely fixed. There was only buying Leeran more time to cover his and Jin's tracks.

"I- I'd be of no help, Orsina. This pregnancy...it was the wrong time. It's been much harder on me than the first. I'm wrung out. My mind just- isn't what it was. I have trouble remembering...even small things," she said, tracing her hands over her belly as she glanced down at it.

Orsina shook her head, her smile shifting into a full-on sneer. Then she reached a hand out to pat Gaila's belly one more time before reaching up to take her cheek in hand. "Gaila, Gaila, you're an inspired scientist, but you're a terrible liar," she scolded. "Now I admire the effort, but- oh, look, here's Leeran, back from the dead. It's a miracle."

Gaila felt a chill of horror sweep down her spine at the other woman's words. Following her gaze, she saw Leeran springing up over the near rise with a small bundle clutched in his arms.

 _No!_ every particle of her being cried out at the sight of her husband with that old fiery glint in his eyes. Her heart was overjoyed that he would come back for her, but at the same time, she understood what an utter death sentence this decision was. _Leeran, don't do this! Why won't you let me save you, you stubborn fool!_

Gaila wasn't even aware of the fact that she'd begun to move toward Leeran until she heard the sound of a trooper priming his blaster, warning her not to move. Glancing between the weapon and her approaching husband several times, her eyes finally fixed on Leeran when Orsina gave a clipped warning.

"Stop!"

Leeran did as he was bid, but almost immediately let his bundle fall away to reveal a blaster of his own aimed for Orsina's head.

"Oh, Leeran. Troublesome as ever," Orsina opined, and though Gaila didn't turn to see the expression on her face, she had no trouble picturing it – the triumph in her eyes as she gloated inside her own mind.

_You've lost, Leeran. Gaila is_ _**mine** _ _again._

"You're _not taking them!_ " Leeran snarled in desperation, blaster aimed unerringly between Orsina's eyes.

"No, of course I'm not. I'm taking you all," Orsina scolded. "You'll all come, you, your children. You'll all live in comfort."

"As hostages," Leeran snapped defiantly, priming the blaster.

"As heroes of the Empire," Orsina corrected.

"Leeran," Gaila begged softly, extending one hand out to him while the other rose up to her belly, hoping to remind him. "Put it down."

"Think very carefully," Orsina warned.

 _Stars, Leeran,_ _ **please!**_ Gaila cried out with her eyes. _Think of Jin. Think of our daughter. Don't make them grow up fatherless. Think of_ _ **me!**_ _What will I do without you?_

Leeran's gaze flicked between her and Orsina for several tense moments, and she knew that her husband understood her, but at the same time, she also knew that no matter how desperately she needed for him to live, Leeran could never be anything but what he was. He _couldn't_ back down. When his gaze finally fixed on Orsina, it was with a small, private smile of victory.

"You will _never win!_ "

"Do it!"

Gaila was never to be certain who fired first. All she was aware of in the moment was the blare of blaster fire and the fleeting spark of it as it struck Leeran. She saw his eyes bulge briefly in pain before he dropped, but by the time he hit the ground, it was already over.

"Leeran! _NO!_ " she cried out, moving to him as fast as she could, even though she knew it was too late. Collapsing in an awkward heap at his side, she reached a trembling hand forward to brush the hair from his eyes, gently sliding them closed so she wouldn't have to see the gaping emptiness in them.

"They have a child! " she heard Orsina snarl in pain and anger. " _Find it!_ "

 _Oh, my love...my love,_ Gaila sobbed silently in her heart, tears pouring down her face as she gathered her husband's unmoving form in her arms. What would she do? Without Leeran, where could she turn? _How could you leave me alone like this?_

So much in shock was she that she almost didn't feel the sharp, unexpected pangs of her first contractions.

XxX

Jin had been no less horrified than his mother to see his father fall. His first instinct had been to jump up and fling himself at the troopers who'd murdered his father. But, thankfully, the cooler voice of his mother prevailed in his head, urging him to keep to the plan – to _run._

So run he did.

He tumbled back down the ravine, scuttling along the grass as quick as his feet would carry him, not stopping until he'd reached the cave. Moving to the back of the enclosed space, he headed straight for one of the heavy-looking boulders, easily flipping it back to reveal a chute that dropped down into a dark abyss. No sooner had he snapped the hatch shut than he heard the heavy tread of the troopers' armored boots tromping around the corner.

Watching from the tiny opening at the hatch's base, Jin hardly dared to breathe as the pair of troopers canvased the cave searching for him. Any moment now, they would find the hatch. They would yank it back and force him up out of the darkness, into a light that he neither knew nor wanted. The game would be up.

Only...this wasn't a game.

 _Papa,_ he finally sobbed quietly to himself once the troopers had gone. With the tears flowing hot and heavy down his face, he let himself slip down into the hidden hollow at the base of the chute. And Mama. What would happen to Mama? And his baby sister? He'd promised them all he would be brave, but he hadn't been able to help _any_ of them. Sniffling miserably, he lit a flickering glow lamp and crawled under a blanket, clinging tightly to the crystal pendant his father had given him.

 _Being brave isn't about never crying,_ he heard his mother's voice come to him from out of the past. _It's about doing what you need to do in spite of those tears. The important thing is, even when you're afraid, or sad, or angry, taking it in stride and taking a step forward anyway._

_So Jin, from here, what's the next step?_

The next step? The next step was to find a way out of the darkness. But in order for that to happen, he had to wait for someone to come for him. Someone would come. Both Mama and Papa had promised.

But...they'd also promised they would all be together again, and that could never happen now.

Despite his fears, Jin knew there was little else he could do except wait, so he huddled down in the hollow with nothing but the lamp and the crystal for comfort, gnawing on one of the ration capsules whenever hunger began to churn in his tummy.

When Jin finally heard the sound of the hatch being forced back, he wasn't completely sure it was real. After so long, he would have almost believed that the whole rest of the galaxy had simply disappeared, fallen away into darkness while he'd huddled in abject misery. But his fears were soon softened by the familiar voice that accompanied the shaft of light down into the hollow.

"My child," came the voice of her father's old friend, Sade. Sticking a hand down the shaft, she waved him up toward her. "Come. Come. We have a long ride ahead of us, my boy."

So this was it, his step forward, Jin thought as he climbed up out of the darkness. He didn't really know what it meant, but it was the only way forward he had, so he didn't hesitate to take Sade's hand. Nor did he argue when Sade lifted him in her arms and urged him to sleep. When he did lay his head against her chest, he was asleep almost immediately, as if he hadn't slept in years – as if he'd be perfectly happy to sleep for many years more.

_I'll find my next step, Mama. I promise I will._

XxX

Gaila gave birth very late that night in the med ward of an orbiting star destroyer. Caught between the tearing grief in her heart and the rending physical pain of giving birth to her last child, the scientist truly couldn't say which was more painful.

The difficult labor wore on and on and the military med technicians, all with zero experience with childbirth, were of next to no help. Many times throughout the long night, she found herself begging for death as she struggled to be delivered of the endless agony.

_Please...just let me die. Let me be with Leeran._

But she didn't die. Though the techs did a near abortive job of delivering her daughter, they did not let her die. Orsina wouldn't allow them to let her die. The director had stood by all through the long night, holding her hand and whispering her own twisted encouragements to her. It was quite plain to Gaila that she would not be allowed to die – not while this cruel Empire had a use for her.

When she was finally pulled from her sleep of near-death, it was by the sound of her little girl crying. Slowly bringing her eyes into focus, she found herself looking at Orsina, who held the baby awkwardly in her arms, though she was still keeping up some pretense of smiling for her.

"They told me you were waking. She'll need to go back into intensive care soon, but I thought you'd want to see her."

"Let me hold her," Gaila pleaded, reaching out an imploring arm. "Just once...just once..."

"Of course. Of course," Orsina obliged, passing the baby girl into her arms. Though she still cried softly, she did begin to settle once she was in her mother's arms. As she rocked the little girl, Gaila began to take in every detail of her appearance, from the perfect curl of each tiny toe to the wisps of dark hair already growing from her head. And when the child finally blinked her eyes open, blinking away the last of her tears, Gaila Erso found herself blessed with Leeran's eyes gazing back at her. No matter how small, at least some part of him still remained with her.

"My little girl...my little girl..." she whispered over and over again as she drew the baby to her breast to feed her. She latched on immediately, cooing as she suckled contentedly.

"Had the two of you decided on a name?" Orsina asked her, laying a hand on her shoulder.

They had narrowed down their choices, but the moment she had seen the baby's eyes blinking up at her, she had dropped every last one of them. There was only one name for this child with her father's eyes.

"Lyra," she said softly, pressing a kiss to her daughter's small head.

" _What?_ " Orsina demanded in a poisonous hiss, her fingers digging into Gaila's shoulder.

"Lyra," Gaila returned, her voice a little firmer this time. "Her name is Lyra."

"No!" Orsina snapped in anger, the sharpness of her voice frightening Lyra. "I won't have it! I don't want to hear that name ever again! Your husband was a terrible influence on you, Gaila. He was giving you dangerous ideas. I won't have you passing them on to an impressionable child."

"But Lyra-"

" _No more!_ " Orsina snarled, violently plucking Lyra from her arms. "You've been through a serious emotional trauma and a very difficult labor. Obviously, you are not mentally fit to name the child. I will take responsibility for her until you are quite recovered."

"Orsina, no...please," Gaila begged, reaching out her arms for Lyra, but unable to stir any further from the bed. "Don't do this. You can't- take her from me. My Lyra-"

"Her name. _Is not. Lyra!_ " the director growled, the deadly quiet of her voice somehow deafening, even over Lyra's cries. "If you speak that name ever again, even once, you will not be permitted to see your daughter. I will have her given over to the care of a truly loyal Imperial family. If you want this brat in your life, you will do as you're told."

"Yes...all right...fine," Gaila choked out as she collapsed back against the bed, fresh tears pouring down her face.

"Now, for a name," Orsina started back up, glancing down at Lyra with a smug sneer on her face. "I've always been partial to O'kari. It was my mother's name. A fine name for a growing girl, don't you think?"

"Whatever you like," Gaila conceded without argument, knowing it didn't matter what she thought or what name Orsina chose. She would have no say in naming her own child, nor likely any say in how she was brought up. So long as Orsina had control of her daughter, she had control of _her_.

"O'kari Erso. A new child for a new age. We're going to do great things for her, Gaila; I promise. You'll see," she insisted, looking down at Lyra with that same disconcertingly possessive leer. "And now little O'kari, I believe your mother's too weak to feed you," the director simpered mockingly, even as wasted milk dribbled from Gaila's breast. "She'll be permitted to nurse you when she's sufficiently... _calmed_ ," she finished with a glare down at Gaila, the threat plain enough without further explanation. Then, without another word, Orsina turned and carried her baby away from her, paying little mind to the newborn's distressed screams as she exited the ward.

In that moment, lying there listening to her precious child cry and unable to do anything for her, a new and dreadful emotion was born in Gaila Erso's heart – an emotion she'd never experienced before, something that turned a large part of her gentle soul to hard stone.

Hatred.

In that moment, Gaila hated Orsina Krennic. She hated her as she'd hated no other living creature in her life, and she hated the Empire that had shaped her. At that moment, she would have built any weapon the Empress asked of her, no matter how unimaginably horrific, just for the chance to unleash that weapon's full destructive power in her former friend's face. But as deeply as she understood her hatred of the director, she also understood that Krennic's death would not bring Leeran back. It would not restore Jin to her. It might not even save Lyra from a life of Imperial control.

No. The only thing that would avenge Leeran's murder, that would safeguard the futures of her children, was the destruction of the Empire – the complete and utter annihilation of this diseased regime that had stolen her family from her.

She didn't know how yet. It could take years, an entire lifetime even, but what did it matter? After all, what did she _truly_ have left to lose?

The only thing left to her now...was revenge.

XxX

Jin Erso snapped awake from his nightmare with a sharp intake of breath, glancing wildly about the space. At first, all he saw was darkness, and in that moment, he was terrified that the years had never passed, that he was still eight years old and trapped in that tiny dark hole, helpless and with enough vulnerable heart to admit he still missed his family.

But that darkness was soon broken by the slotted light filtering in from the catwalk just outside his cell. His prison cell.

 _That's right,_ he slowly talked himself down from the night terror. _This is Wobani, not Lah'mu. I'm in prison. I was caught with another stolen blaster cache. Or, at least, Lian Hallik was caught. It would've been straight to the execution chamber if_ _ **Jin Erso**_ _had been caught._

How long had it been since anyone had called him that name? How many aliases was this? It would almost be some sort of cosmic joke to die under one of them instead of for the crime of having the name Jin Erso. And if he were being straight with himself, that was definitely the road he was headed down. The labor camps of Wobani were notoriously harsh. Prisoners weren't known to survive them long.

 _Maybe_ _ **that's**_ _what brought them back to my head,_ he considered as he fiddled with the kyber pendant still at his throat, more something that was just there after all these years than anything of actual sentimental value. _Mama and Papa...Sister. I'll be joining them by the end of the week. No sense in pretending otherwise._

Except...why now? It had been nearly thirteen years since he'd been pulled from that dark hole and he'd brushed with death more times than he could count in all those years. What was so different about this time that would bring his long vanished family to mind? Who knew? He surely didn't. So, shoving thoughts of what was long gone from his mind, Jin hunkered back down and attempted to fall back asleep. Maybe he could catch another hour before the prisoners were jostled from their beds for work detail.

As his awareness drifted blissfully back apart, the last sensation to leave Jin's mind was the warm feel of the smoothed kyber against the pads of his fingers.

XxX

Captain Cassia Andor let out a huff of frustration as she allowed the long hair of her auburn wig to fall free of the tie that held it up. A more professional hairstyle and a retired Republic Military jacket had gotten her through port security without too much notice, but hitting the streets of Kafrene required a slightly rougher look. It had taken her longer than she wanted to switch out jackets, but the ability to pass unseen was always mission critical for her. With a few tweaks in clothing and hair, a completely different woman than had entered the Ring was moving through the Kafrene market.

Granted, the Ring of Kafrene wasn't exactly a hotbed of Imperial activity, hence the preference as a meeting place. Still, it was always better to be cautious, so the rebel spy passed unobtrusively among Kafrene's many colorful inhabitants, ducking around the few stormtroopers she did spot, and coming finally to the back alley where she always met up with her contact, Tivik. The man was pacing the space anxiously and very nearly jumped out of his skin when she slipped into the dead-end alley.

"I was about to leave," he snapped at her, clutching at his heart with the one hand that remained to him.

"I came as fast as I could," she protested. As fast as she could from nearly four sectors away when Tivik had shown up on her radar with potentially important news about this ghost military project the intelligence division had been pursuing for near three years now.

"I have to get back on board. Walk with me," he started, attempting to pull her back out into the flow of foot traffic.

"Back to Jedha?" she demanded, digging her heels in and refusing to let him drag her anywhere until he'd given her something worth her time.

"They'll leave without me," he tried to argue.

"Easy," she started, whirling him around and drawing him back into the alley. Tivik was a bigger man, certainly, but she had greater agility, which she often used to keep unwary marks off-balance. Tivik was unaware of the fact that she was pinning him against a wall until it was already done. Looking up into his wide eyes, she repeated her demand. "You have news from Jedha?"

"An Imperial pilot," the man finally mumbled. "One of their cargo drivers, she defected yesterday. She's telling people they're making a weapon. The kyber crystals, that's what they're for."

"What kind of weapon?" Cassia pressed. She could understand a handful of focusing crystals, but on the scale the Empire had been ripping them from the worlds that contained them, what could they possibly be building?

"Look, I have to go," Tivik snapped as he shoved her away, but before he could take another step, she was right back on him, jamming a deceptively slender arm against his windpipe.

" _What kind of weapon?_ " she demanded again, nearly spitting in his face.

"A planet killer!" Tivik wheezed out, eyes wide with fear as he gazed down at her. "That's what she called it," he finished once Cassia had released his throat.

"A planet killer..." the captain whispered disbelievingly as she took a step back, her thoughts plagued by images of whole forests being burned up by proton bombs.

"Someone named Erso sent her, some old friend of Sade's," the man added, almost as an afterthought, but to Cassia the name meant something. It couldn't be the same Erso who was the Empire's top scientific specialist in weapons development, could it? She'd been trying to keep tabs on Erso for almost four years.

" _Gaila_ Erso?" she hardly dared to breathe. " _Was it?_ "

"I don't know. They were looking for Sade when we left," he ground out.

"Who else knows about this?" she pressed yet again, voice not much louder than a whisper.

"I have _no idea,_ " he bit back as he pushed her away again. "It's all falling apart. Sade's right, you know. There are _spies_ everywhere. I-"

Cassia had seen the distinct white blur around the corner, but hadn't been quick enough to keep Tivik from running at the mouth yet again.

"What's all this?" the first stormtrooper pressed at the no doubt suspicious sight of them. Cassia took a few steps back from Tivik, offering up a questioning smile.

"Come on. Let's see some scan docs," the second trooper prompted.

"Yeah, of course," Cassia returned with the same blithe, mildly confused smile. "Just- my gloves..." she tried to explain, reaching into her jacket, to the concealed holster at her side. No sooner was her hand around the grip of her blaster than the two troopers were lying in the dirt with plasma bolts through their chests.

" _No!_ " Tivik cried out in shock. Cassia hardly paid him any mind as she stole a glance back out into the market. Already more troopers were reporting the incident.

"What have you _done?_ " the panicked partisan demanded of her as she rushed past him to scope out another way out of their predicament. "Are you crazy? I'll never climb out of here- _my arm!_ "

Well, when he was right, he was right.

"Calm down. Calm down," she soothed as she sidled back over to him, giving him her best smile. "We'll be all right," she said as she rested a hand on his shoulder. He hardly had a chance to smile hopefully down at her before she put a blaster bolt through his stomach. His bulk immediately slumped against her, carrying them both to the ground.

 _I'm sorry, Tivik. You would've broken. The Empire is relentless. This is a kinder fate. I promise you,_ she said silently as she shoved his dead weight off of her. She shivered violently in disgust as she pulled away from him.

 _And you're_ _ **not**_ _relentless?_ a smaller part of her brain couldn't seem to help pointing out as she looked down on the man she'd killed. _You_ _ **had**_ _to do this. Is that what you'll tell yourself when you can't sleep tonight? Is that what you'll tell his sister?_

 _We're done here,_ she scolded herself as she turned away from the body, stripping off her wig entirely to reveal her own scruffy brown hair. Then she slipped her jacket off, flipped it inside out and tied it around her waist, and once again, a completely different woman from the one who had first entered was climbing her way out of the alley.

XxX

Beni Rook had thought about what it would be like to return to NiJedha many times since leaving. Of course, she'd been running the cargo route between Jedha and Eadu for many years now, but she hadn't set foot in the city itself for just as long. On some logical level, she'd understood that her hometown would have changed with the years, but there was a larger part of her heart that controlled her memories of NiJedha – a part that longed for her family, her brothers, her sister, her mother, even her father...a memory so distant, it was almost gone. But that family was long gone, buried in the dust, spread across the moon, or gone from Jedha altogether. Her family was gone and the streets of her childhood had sunk even further into despair.

Perhaps it was the pain of her family being gone from their home that had caused Beni to behave so irrationally, going from place to place on the once familiar streets and just asking anyone who would listen how to find Sade Gerrera, how to let her know just how important the message she was carrying was. It was this behavior, she had little doubt, which had earned her an armed rebel guard out of the city.

At least, she _assumed_ these beings were rebels. Had she been too quick to trust the first person who said they could take her to Sade?

She'd long since lost track of the distance they'd travelled from the city. They were out among the colossal ruins of Jedha's many religious orders – Guardians, Jedi, pilgrims, Disciples. Who could keep them straight? And really, weren't they all going to be the same once they returned to sand and dust?

Beni shook herself off to be rid of the thoughts. She'd decided not to think like that anymore. It was that sort of pessimism that had gotten her here in the first place. She'd promised Gaila she was going to turn this around. It was no time to start thinking down. She was supposed to go up from here.

Then, as fate would have it, she just happened to look up and see figures emerging from the monochrome of the desert. At first, the members of this group weren't particularly distinct from each other. It wasn't until they started to get in close that Beni began to see the majority of the unit forming up around a Tognath. She wasn't completely sure why, but for some reason, she'd always pictured Gaila's infamous friend as human.

"Is- is that her?" she made herself ask one of the members of her escort, feeling the need to talk even when she didn't get an answer. "She just looks sort of- different...from how I imagined."

" _On your feet!_ " she heard the Tognath snap in her own language. " _It's the pilot. The defector._ "

"Okay- so you're...Sade Gerrera?" Beni pressed haltingly as she rushed toward the new group. All she received in response were chilly looks and a shove from one of her escorts. "Sade...Gerrera? No?" Still nothing but hostile glares. Seriously? Were they honestly going to do this now? "Okay, we're just wasting time we don't have. I need to speak to Sade Gerrera, I keep telling them- before it's too late," she pleaded, her worried rambling getting worse and worse. How was she supposed to get these people to _listen to her?_

" _Keep your heads down! The Imperials will be searching for her,_ " the Tognath warned as her unit gathered up their gear. Just what was going on here? Was she going to see Gerrera or not?

"We're in the middle of nowhere. We need to get back to Jedha City. What part of _urgent message_ do you idiots not understand?" she bit out angrily, immediately regretting the hasty insult when a rough cloth sack was shoved over her head. The only thing that kept her from outright panic was the fact that her hands weren't bound. She was just shoved along by who knew which of the rebel fighters. Unable to do anything else, it seemed her nervous rambling was her only recourse. "We're on the same side here. _Please!_ Just see past the uniform for one minute."

Beni kept talking, but she got the distinct impression they weren't listening. For a moment, she felt a distinct desire of her own to just dismiss them all as rebel scum, as even low end personnel like her had been taught, but she shook the thought away once again. She knew what was coming. Someone had to be told. Gaila was counting on her. O'kari was counting on her.

She had to make _someone listen._

XxX

Jin gave a single annoyed grunt as the prison transport hit another dip in the road, rattling its occupants around, causing him in particular to smack his head against the back of the vehicle wall. If they were going to kill him, why couldn't they just get it over with and forget about this whole work camp facade? Briefly, the former rebel glanced around at his fellow inmates, wondering if it would be the work or one of them that did him in.

Jin came out with an angry hiss the next time the transport hit a bump – only this time, the vehicle came to a dead stop.

"What now?" the captain of their guard detail growled, her annoyance plain to be heard.

"Who knows? Must be another pickup," one of her men returned as he went to check the door, making sure the transport was ready for another prisoner.

The stormtrooper captain turned to survey her hold full of prisoners, head tilting to the side in a way that could almost be described as suspicious. "I thought we had everybody."

Before the captain could draw any further conclusions, the hatch was blown free of its hinges, instantly crushing one of the troopers. A volley of blaster fire railed into the cabin, taking out the rest of the detail in a few ugly flashes. The captain had time for only one return shot before her face plate was melted in by enemy fire. Once the stormtroopers were dead, two new men swept into the transport, searching for other threats.

"All clear, Sir!" one of them called back out, making way for the entry of a rebel officer.

"Hallik!" the sergeant called as she strode into the cabin. "Lian Hallik?"

Wait. _Seriously?_ They were looking for _him?_ What did the Rebel Alliance want with Lian Hallik? They didn't _know_ , did they? Was it possible that Sade had caught up with him after all these years?

Throughout it all, Jin had remained silent. It wasn't until another of the sergeant's men entered the vehicle and pointed, snapping out, "Him," that the rebel sergeant approached.

"Do you want to get outta here?" the woman asked him. Jin nodded fervently as he held out his hands to be unbound. It didn't matter what was happening here. This was a chance to escape with his life. He'd figure everything else out later. The sergeant quickly undid his restraints.

"Hey! What about me?" one of the other prisoners demanded. Jin used the sergeant's moment of distraction to reach back and grab hold of a turbo shovel, pressing forward in almost the same motion to clock the woman upside the head.

Moving past the downed sergeant, Jin fought his way through the other rebels. The open hatch was right there! He just might make it out of here in one piece.

But just as he was moving out into the open air, a solid metal arm was thrown across his chest. The hand attached to it gripped his shoulder and lifted him into the air, flinging him harshly to the ground. Dazed from the impact, Jin looked up to see a looming metal behemoth standing over him. He couldn't quite make out the features through his wobbling vision, but he could have sworn it was one of the Imperial security droids.

"Congratulations, you are being rescued," the droid stated, its prerecorded voice modulator having more of a feminine bend to it. "Please do not resist."

All Jin could manage to do was stare up at the droid in perplexed shock for a few moments before he was knocked out from behind.

XxX

O'kari Erso nearly choked on the giggle rising in her throat as she ducked into the TIE hangar, slipping away from her stormtrooper escort. Yes, she'd promised Aunt Orsina and Mama that she wouldn't sneak off during her visits anymore, but she just couldn't help it. It was too easy. That and this might be her only chance to get a look at some of the new upgrades made to the Eadu division while she was still planetside.

Slipping beneath the underbelly of one the the fighters that was docked off to the side for refueling and repair, the thirteen-year-old quietly wormed her way into the TIE's open inner workings, hiding herself from the eyes of the flight controllers. Almost immediately, a spurt of ionized coolant spilled from a stripped fuel line and painted the shoulder pad of her academy uniform an ugly grey color.

"Aw, kriff," she growled in annoyance. That was never going to come out. Headmaster Quoran was going to _kill_ her.

"Such language, Kari," her mother's voice suddenly echoed up into the undercarriage of the craft, startling her. "And here I was under the impression you were an educated young lady."

Kari squeaked in surprise, nearly losing her grip and falling from the fighter. "M- Mama," she began cajolingly. "I didn't- know you were on the flight deck."

"Well, that's the notion, isn't it."

"And I _am_ well-educated, by the way. It just might not always be on approved subject matter."

Her mother gave a pained laugh at this. "Well, I suppose I can't argue with that. I _do_ prefer you to ask questions. Do you feel up to telling me what you're doing here?"

"Surprise!" the young Erso declared with a needling smile. "The fourth level students did so well on exams this year, we were given leave time four days early. I got a ride out from Aunt Orsina. She promised she wouldn't spoil the surprise."

At this, her mother's face went a little pale. "Orsina, she's not...she's not here, is she?"

Kari shook her head. "No. She said she had an important meeting. She'll be back around to give us a ride to Coruscant next week," she said, turning her attention back to the fighter she was immersed in.

"You know, I seem to recall a certain promise being made."

"Really? What promise was that?" she deflected, digging through the coils and lines.

"A promise not to sneak away from the troopers when they are escorting you around the installation. I understand how easy it is for you, but there'll come a day when they decide not to be nice about it anymore. Do you want to lose your base privileges?" she asked, raising an expectant eyebrow.

"Well...no," she responded penitently, still not wholly able to pull her attention away from the TIE. "But I didn't know if I'd get a chance to have a look at this new boost drive," she said, finally finding the new engine component she'd been looking for, prodding at it eagerly. "I heard the revolution increase on this thing's up to forty cycles per nano."

"Forty-five, actually. If nothing else, I suppose you have a good eye, but remember that the speed increase doesn't mean much without better maneuverability. A TIE is still easily outstripped in a dogfight," her mother pointed out.

"I get it, but don't worry. We'll get there. Some day I'll fly one of these," she said dreamily as she slid from the fighter, dropping easily onto the floor beside her mother.

"I certainly hope you do," her mother said in a strangely wistful voice. Confused by the tone, Kari looked up at her mother, who was looking down at her like she did when Kari hadn't quite managed to work out the answer to one of her riddles. What did it mean? To say she hoped she achieved her dream while still looking at her like _that?_ Much as she adored her mother, Gaila Erso was never a straightforward sort of woman. Shrugging uncomfortably, she took her mother's hand, swinging it for a moment to let her know to lead the way off the flight deck.

"Is Beni in?" she asked eagerly, her voice dropping into a whisper before she continued with, "She promised she'd sneak me the parts for the drive. I just know I can rig something workable up for her shuttle."

"You know, I wouldn't go saying things like that too loudly," her mother reminded her.

"Why do you think I'm whispering?" she fired back in the same unruly tone. "Where's Beni?"

"Beni...Beni's not in this time. She's on a _very_ long haul," Gaila said in a stilted voice. "I'm honestly not certain you'll see her this time."

"Urgh, craters," the academy cadet growled in annoyance. "It could be _months_ before I see her again. That's no good. Think you might be able to pull some strings? Get her assigned for a few drops out to Montross?"

"I'll see what I can do. I know she likes making the run out to see you," her mother said vaguely. When Kari turned to look up at her again, she _still_ couldn't quite figure out the expression on her lined face.

"Y'know, you've been acting a little weird today," she pointed out. "Is something wrong?"

"No," her mother answered after several thoughtful moments. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Just...you're growing up so fast. I feel that things will be changing soon."

"Heh, sure. Mama, the only thing that's going to change here is I'll get a high enough rank to make my _own_ trips out to Eadu," she said with a proud lift of her head.

"I believe you. I only...wonder what your brother would have been like at this age," Gaila said slowly, her eyes growing misty.

This was one of the few things that could cut Kari's quick tongue right out of her – talk of her older brother. Jin. The boy who had died with their father in the same raid that Aunt Orsina had rescued a heavily pregnant Gaila from. There was nothing she could say now. Her mama loved her. Of _course_ she did, but nothing could compete with their lost family in her memory.

 _Oh, well,_ the young cadet thought, smiling despite the sudden blight on her happiness. She had a few days. Surely she could talk her mother out of this slump and back into the present.

It was just one more challenge – the next step forward – and O'kari Erso was always up for a challenge.


	3. Bad Ideas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy May the Fourth all my fellow geeklets! I hope you have witnessed at least one act of supreme nerdiness today. If not, here is one for you. Hope you all enjoy the update! May the Fourth be with you. ;)

Jin had decided, almost before regaining consciousness, that if Sade had finally decided to tie him up like some other loose end, he was at least going to put her training to good use dogging her before the end. When the rebel agents attempted to question him during the flight to wherever it was they were going, he remained determinedly tight-lipped. He was not about to make things easy for his one-time mother after all these years.

When he was finally escorted from the rebel ship, it was in binders and guarded by two of the rebel soldiers who'd extracted him from Wobani. One was the sergeant he'd got at with the turbo shovel, an ugly bruise already forming across half her face. The escort he was handed off to took a moment to size up the sergeant's injury upon taking custody.

"This one do that?" the new soldier asked, eyes darting between the sergeant and Jin with surprised amusement for a moment before taking hold of his binders.

"He might not look like much, but he's got it where it counts," the sergeant warned. "You watch him."

Jin's new escort did so, keeping a sharp watch on the march through the rebel base. Jin couldn't identify the planet just from the architecture. All he could really glean was that it appeared to be a temple complex of some kind, the abandoned, vine-covered stone walls striking an interesting contrast with the more modern equipment of the rebel fleet. Heh, how very like Sade to set up shop in an abandoned holy place. Although, had his old mentor really been in command of _this_ many X-wings when last he'd known her? Perhaps the Rebel Alliance was moving up in the galaxy?

Jin was hustled into a control center of some sort, surrounded by all manner of holo displays and code machines. All he received was a warning not to try anything as he was shoved into a chair. His escort quickly melted out of sight, but Jin had no doubt the man was lurking somewhere, keeping a sharp eye out. Other than that, Jin was left alone to stew.

This was a tactic he knew well, of course. They were trying to break him down, put him on the defensive. So when a member of the base's command finally made an appearance, Jin made a point of not looking up at the woman.

"You're currently calling yourself 'Lian Hallik'. Is that correct?" she asked, reading from a holo file. Jin still didn't look her in the eye. Shaking her head, the general continued by reading off a list. "Possession of unsanctioned weapons, forgery of Imperial documents, aggravated assault, escape from custody, resisting arrest. And that was all _before_ this morning. Imagine if the Imperial authorities had found out who you _really_ were, _Jin Erso._ "

That one snagged the former partisan's attention quickly, causing his shocked eyes to dart to the rebel general's. The woman had a very strange smile on her face, a knowing smirk that curled her lips, but didn't quite reach her eyes. Those were intent and focused, framed by thinning blonde hair that was sharply pulled back from her face.

"That is your given name, is it not?" the general pressed. "Jin Erso, son of Gaila Erso, a known Imperial collaborator in weapons development."

While the general had been speaking, a figure in white drifted silently into the control center. Upon closer inspection, Jin could see that the white was the faded thick weave cloth of a senator's robes. First glance revealed a man who was just as tired as his robes were. His brunette hair was growing out, becoming lanky in several places, but his tasteful beard and mustache had more to say about this figure's fastidiousness than anything else. He vaguely recalled images of this man from holo transmissions of Sade's.

Mothma. Oman Mothma. Acting Chancellor of the Alliance.

"What is this?" Jin demanded, forcing his eyes away from the rebel leader and back to the general. Where was Sade? What was even happening here?

"It's a chance for you to make a fresh start. We think you might be able to help us," the older leader began to explain before nodding in the direction of yet another new arrival. "This is Captain Cassia Andor, Rebel Intelligence."

As women went, Cassia Andor wasn't much to look at – literally. She was actually shorter than Jin's own paltry 5'3". That observation automatically led Jin to pay more attention, as he was only too aware how often that same observation was made about him. All around, the woman was fairly nondescript, a very good first step for a spy of any persuasion – the simple Rebel military uniform, the short, scruffy brown hair, but what Jin really found himself coming back to were her eyes. They were brown, dissecting and discerning without pulling in too much attention from the intended subject – him, in this case. If he hadn't already been looking, he didn't imagine he would have noticed the gaze. Though he'd never been one to wonder what was going on behind another person's eyes, or to care what they might think of him, in this case he did find himself wondering – wondering and caring.

"When was the last time you were in contact with your mother?"

And there went the interest. Jin reined his curiosity in like a bog slug pulling back into its shell, clamming himself up and offering the captain a defiant stare.

"Thirteen years ago," he snapped out.

"Any idea where she's been all that time?"

_Why no, noble rebel warrior. I had no idea my mother was one of your mortal enemies. Why ever would you ask about that?_

"I like to think she's dead," he answered instead, having no desire to get into his...complicated...feelings about his dear mother. "It makes things easier."

"Easier than what?" the captain demanded sharply, her eyes narrowing. "That she's been a tool of the Imperial war machine?"

Jin stared back at the captain for several moments. There were several things he would've _liked_ to say to her, but he opted for the decidedly neutral, "Never had the luxury of political opinions myself."

Cassia raised an eyebrow in interest at that statement. "Really? When was your last contact with Sade Gerrera?"

And there she was – the matriarch with a BlasTech rifle, the woman who loomed nearly as large over Jin's life as his own mother. She had to come into this eventually. Only...shouldn't they know? What sort of revolution couldn't keep track of its own fighters?

"It's been a long time," he finally answered, not quite looking at Cassia, but even with the less than enthusiastic response, the rebel spy still latched onto the small acknowledgment.

"But she'll remember you, though. Wouldn't she? She might agree to meet you, if you came as a friend," the captain pressed, looking like she wanted to say more, but she was almost immediately overtaken by her superior officer.

"We're up against the clock here, boy, so if there's nothing to talk about, we'll just put you back where we found you," the general reminded him, still with that same half-sneer of hers.

"I was just a kid," Jin started to argue, gaze darting between the three rebels, trying to make them understand. "Sade Gerrera saved my life, she raised me, but I haven't seen her in years. I have _no idea_ where she is!"

"We know how to find her," Cassia reassured him immediately. "That's not the problem. What we need is someone who gets us through the door without being killed."

Jin continued to glance between his three interrogators in confusion. Why all this fuss? Shouldn't they be able to just call Sade up?

"You're all rebels, aren't you?" he wound up asking, figuring his meaning would be plain enough. What did they need _him_ for?

"Yes, but Sade Gerrera is an extremist," Mothma picked up the explanation. "She's been fighting on her own since she broke with the Rebellion. Her militancy has caused the Alliance a great many problems. We have no choice now but to try and mend that broken trust," the former senator finished with a barely perceptible sigh.

"Then what does this have to do with my mother?" Jin asked the white-robed man, seemingly the only one he might be able to get a straight answer out of. Only it wasn't him who answered.

"There's an Imperial defector in Jedha, a pilot," Cassia said after several moments of hesitant silence. "She's being held by Sade Gerrera. She's claiming the Empress is creating a weapon with the power to destroy entire planets. The pilot's been saying she was sent by your mother."

Jin supposed what he _should_ have taken away from that statement were the words 'weapon with the power to destroy entire planets', but all he could seem to fixate on was the bit about his mother. He almost didn't hear what Oman said next.

"We need to stop this weapon _before_ it is finished."

"Captain Andor's mission is to authenticate the pilot's story and, if possible, find your mother," the general informed him.

"It appears she is critical to the development of this super weapon," Mothma continued. "Given the gravity of the situation and your history with Sade, we're hoping she will help us locate your mother and return her to the Senate for testimony."

When Jin looked around the space with fresh eyes, it was to see that others had entered the control room. Though he didn't know any of them, each of these rebels looked at him in their own way – with hope, fear, interest, mistrust, desperation. Whatever it was, it was too much for Jin. It had been a long time since he'd been counted on like this – since he'd been able to give his whole heart to something, whether that something was love or hate. Survival had meant culling all of that from himself. The last person he looked to before deciding was Cassia, who stood above him looking as if she _wanted_ to hate him, but that there just might be something in her that held out hope, even for a no-good womp rat like him.

"And if I do it?" he finally asked, looking up at Mothma.

"We'll make sure you go free."

XxX

Jin had never expected to be working with the Rebel Alliance again, but then, Sade had also taught him never to _expect_ anything. Then he couldn't be surprised. As such, he had a bit better control of himself when he encountered the K-X series droid who'd knocked him out before loading up Cassia's ship. Whilst Cassia hung back to discuss a few last minute details with the general – General Draven, he'd learned – Jin helped the droid to load the last of their gear on the ship.

"I'm K-2SO," the droid announced when Jin took no particular notice of her. "I'm a reprogrammed Imperial droid."

_Yes, because I couldn't already see that._

However, figuring that his sarcasm would go right over the droid's head, he instead responded with, "I remember you."

"I see the council is sending you with us to Jedha," the droid continued to comment, as if she'd roped him into a conversation about blaster lubricant.

"Apparently so," he answered, not much interested in getting caught up in the droid's idea of a conversation.

"That is a bad idea. I think so and so does Cassia. But what do I know? My specialty's just strategic analysis."

Jin turned to watch the droid in interest as she plotted their flight plan. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe this droid _could_ grasp sarcasm.

Cassia, meanwhile, found herself dealing with anything _but_ sarcasm as Vidhalia Draven gave her latest round of orders.

"Gaila Erso is vital to the Empire's weapons program. Forget what you heard in there. There will be no extraction. You find her? You kill her. Then and there," the general said, looking Cassia in the eye to make sure she understood.

The only response the captain gave was a single nod, opting not to process the endless stream of implications of her new orders. This was what she did. It was what she was for. Whatever had to be done to bring down the Empire – no matter how ugly. Filing this latest batch of ugliness away for a time when she had nothing else to distract her, Cassia made her way to her ship, finding her new shipmate staring at K-2SO with an odd sort of fascination.

"You've met K-2?" she found herself asking, almost scolding herself for attempting to make nice when she _knew_ what she had to do.

"Charming, that one," Jin answered with a look that was somewhere between amused and annoyed.

Cassia shrugged as she began to recheck K's calculations. "She tends to say whatever comes into her circuits. It's a byproduct of the reprogramming." If nothing else, K was usually good for a laugh. Her next words, though, Cassia didn't find all that funny.

"Why does _he_ get a blaster and I don't?"

Cassia stiffened at the droid's question, turning to see what it was she'd been talking about. Sure enough, the grip of a blaster could be seen poking out from the outlaw's pack. " _What?_ "

"I know how to use it," Jin offered up in a failed attempt at nonchalance.

Cassia rolled her eyes. No? Really? Because aim was definitely the concern here. "That's actually what I'm afraid of. Give it to me," she snapped, taking a few steps closer to her reluctant partner.

"We're going to Jedha. That's a war zone," Jin pointed out, as if she didn't already know. Apparently this one time partisan had no head for finesse.

"That's not the point. Where did you get it?" she seethed, gaze darting back out to Draven, who was still making her way back into the base.

"Found it," he answered with a shrug.

"I find that answer vague and unconvincing," K-2 spoke for both of them. When Cassia fixed the man with a demanding glare, he returned with an expectant look of his own.

"Trust goes both ways."

And just like that, Cassia Andor found herself defeated. After all, what did _she_ know about trust? Driven more by guilt than anything else, she moved up into the cockpit, where K-2 was making final preparations for takeoff.

"You're letting him keep it?" the droid pressed in surprise, her eye lights widening. "Would you like to know the probability of him using it _against_ you? It's high."

"Let's get going," she snapped back.

"It's _very_ high," the former Imperial finished as she took their U-wing up into the clouds, blasting away from Yavin IV.

Cassia would never say as much to anyone, but...maybe that was what she wanted.

XxX

"Lies! _Deception!_ "

Beni flinched each time the new voice pierced her ears. Even with the sack on her head, she'd at least been able to determine they'd come into a building or ship or some other structure. As she'd been manhandled through the space, the voices had become progressively stranger and stranger. Each being she was handed off to had some new language or some new kind of vocal defect. This one...this one was legitimately frightening. The woman who spoke seemed on the verge of snapping, and if she wasn't mistaken, there was some sort of mechanical wheeze between her words. Was she going to have to convince yet another half-mad fanatic of how important it was that she speak to Sade? How many lunatics did these rebels have?

"Let's see it," the voice's owner came in close to them. Beni didn't at first know what her Tognath guard had handed over, but that soon became apparent enough when the new voice started questioning her. "Beni. Rook. Cargo pilot. Local girl, huh?"

Not really sure what else to do, Beni just nodded, swallowing heavily. Her outbursts had gotten her nowhere thus far. Maybe it would serve her better to keep calm?

" _This was found in her boot when she was captured,_ " the Tognath said in her own language, no doubt handing over Gaila's message.

And there went that plan. Outbursts back on. Giving a mirthless laugh, Beni turned over her shoulder as if she could still look back at her captor. "I can _hear you!_ " she snapped before insisting to the owner of the new voice, "She didn't capture me; I came here myself. I defected. I defected!"

"Every day, more lies," the woman said, as if this were all such an easily dismissed matter.

"Lie?!" Beni repeated in disbelief, starting to hyperventilate. Why wouldn't anyone _listen?_ "Would I risk everything for a lie?! We don't have time for this! I have to speak to Sade Gerrera before it's too la-"

All at once, the sack was pulled from her head and Beni found herself looking up at a broken woman.

Most of her body was hidden by some kind of pressure suit, fitted with all manner of mechanical life support. What little of her dark skin was visible was covered in the grime and dust of the desert moon. Her long black hair fell in matted snarls down her back, tangling with the tattered remnants of what looked to be some sort of banner that she wore draped over her shoulder. She looked as if she could keel over at any moment but, at the same time, Beni did not know that she'd ever seen a more imposing woman in all her life, because at the center of all this cobbled together madness was a pair of intense brown eyes, dark and burning with an intent that could not be broken, no matter if the body that contained them survived or not. This could only be the infamous Sade Gerrera, whom both Rebels and Imperials named both brilliant and madwoman, hero and villain.

"O...okay...y- you're...that's for you," the awestruck pilot barely managed to stutter out, nodding toward the data chip clutched in the woman's fist. Although she couldn't entirely help pointing out, "And I gave it to them. They did not _find_ it. I gave."

For a moment, the aging partisan looked at her like she couldn't quite remember what had been happening. As her gaze gradually shifted down to the data chip, she ran a thumb over it.

"Gaila Erso?" Beni found herself prompting, thinking maybe to jog the old rebel's memory. "She told me to find you."

" _Perhaps we should give this one to the men,_ " the Tognath suggested. " _It has been long since those with the predilection had any means of release._ "

"You- you can't-" Beni started, feeling fear begin to pool at the base of her spine as she struggled to look back at her captor. "You wouldn't-"

" _No!_ " Sade snapped, not at her, but at the Tognath, though the sound snapped her attention right back to the rebel leader just the same. "Imperial or no, I will see no man as master of another woman's body. You would do well to remember it."

" _What then?_ "

"Miss...Gerrera?" Beni tried again to get her attention, not sure of the woman's proper rank. " _Please._ It- it's _very important_...that message. There's no time left."

Gerrera slowly dragged her gaze from her lieutenant down to Beni. For several moments, it seemed to the young pilot that the woman was taking her measure, looking her up and down as if she could see into her mind simply by staring long enough at the dust in her hair or the color of her eyes. At first, that gaze was implacably discerning, but after who knew how many minutes of the silent staring, the partisan grabbed at a breathing apparatus hanging from her life support network, taking a long draw from it before her expression settled on anger.

"Bor Gullet," she announced sharply, nodding at the Tognath.

"Bor...Gullet?" Beni repeated uncomprehendingly, but then the Tognath seized her roughly around her middle and began to haul her away. That was when the former Imperial began to struggle in earnest. _No!_ There was _no way_ she'd come this far only to fail now!

" _Gaila Erso sent me!_ " she shrieked before she was dragged completely out of Gerrera's presence. " _She told me to find you! You_ _ **have**_ _to_ _ **listen!**_ _PLEASE!_ "

XxX

Orsina Krennic bristled mildly as her Death Trooper guard escorted her through the corridors of Governor Wilha Tarkin's command destroyer. While she had taken great pleasure in escorting O'kari to Eadu, she couldn't stave off the spectre of Wilha Tarkin's interference forever.

Sometimes she really didn't understand the older woman. As two of the only women in the upper echelons of Imperial command, they could've been helping each other advance. But then, she supposed, at the end of the day, only _one_ of them could be at the top. Tarkin had done nothing but badger her over the Death Star's construction these last few decades, one moment extolling its proposed qualities and the next whispering in her ear that no mortal could hope to deliver such a weapon. And unfortunately, between the two of them, Tarkin was the one who had the Empress' ear.

 _Well,_ she thought with a pleased sneer, _that will change just as soon as the Death Star is operational._

She would finally attain the glory and prestige she'd been seeking all these years – power over every single small-minded _man_ who had ever been foolish enough to talk down to her. She would bring the order she'd always regaled Gaila with to this galaxy of theirs. Sadly, it was far too late to convince Gaila to take a place at her side in this new era. The gulf between them had become too wide. Pliant a lover as her former friend still proved to be, Orsina knew there wasn't truly anything there when they were together. Gaila did whatever the director demanded for the sake of her child. Nothing more.

But that child? Ah, what a rising star young O'kari was proving to be. A popular favorite among her academy instructors and well-liked and respected by her peers, with her scores and abilities, the director had no doubt she would be on the fast track for an officer's position just as soon as she was an official academy graduate. A few years off though that time was, Orsina was certain this young woman, raised under _her_ tutelage and influence, would become a shining beacon of everything the Empire was capable of.

O'kari Erso would gladly stand at her side in the days to come. The girl already worshipped her as a hero, having been raised on Orsina's stories of how she'd saved both O'kari and Gaila. So far as O'kari knew, she owed Orsina her life, and the director was always pleased to accept the girl's adulation. And when she was old enough, _oh_ , what an _exquisite_ lover she would make. Maybe even a wife if she proved useful enough.

Orsina had already begun to groom her for the roll, making physical affection between them a regular occurrence since the girl was born, hugs, kisses, lap-sitting, hand-holding, and the like. O'kari was well-used to her touch by now and she was growing every day. During the flight to Eadu, she'd been telling the director how she'd begun to share innocent kisses with a girl in her year she'd become attracted to. Now that a child's curiosity had started to blossom into the breaking bud of adolescent desire, Orsina knew it wouldn't take much to transform their casual intimacy into passionate embraces.

She expected it to take several years more, but she knew it would be worth it in the end. From her lovely O'kari, she would have the devotion and admiration she'd never managed to elicit from Gaila, and the best part was that it hardly mattered that Gaila _knew_ exactly what she was up to, saw through her tactics, and disapproved thoroughly. She could say nothing against Orsina's power over her daughter because, if she did, she would be cut from O'kari's life entirely and the girl would belong to Orsina, fully and completely. Not that she didn't already, but it was still mildly amusing to Orsina to watch Gaila nurse this fool's hope that she could change these events in any way. She supposed it was the only thing Gaila must feel she still had any control over in her life. Well, it wouldn't be all that long before Orsina disabused her of that notion altogether. The future was bright indeed.

So, even with the troubling shadow of Tarkin's machinations looming over her head, Director Krennic couldn't manage to keep back the tiny, prideful smile that stretched across her lips as she strode confidently into the conference room.

Tarkin was facing away from her on her entrance, gazing out the viewport at the finishing touches being made on the Death Star. Proud as she was of her creation and pleased as she was that it drew the governor's attention so, Orsina couldn't entirely help the pang of annoyance at the way the other woman deliberately didn't face her.

"Most unfortunate about the security breach on Jedha, Director Krennic. After so many setbacks and delays and now this. We've heard word of rumors circulating through the city," the governor said in an imperious tone as she finally turned to look at the director. "Apparently you've lost a rather talkative cargo pilot. If the Senate gets wind of our project, countless systems will flock to the Rebellion."

Orsina gnashed her teeth together in annoyance beneath her tight smile. She knew _which_ pilot it was, too. She didn't know most of her underlings at the Eadu installation, but this one she did – the pilot O'kari spent so much time with. Rook. She would just have to make sure this traitor came to a very messy end, not just for her betrayal, but for her interest in that which belonged to Orsina. More than this, she would have to learn exactly how Tarkin was so well-informed about the inner workings of _her_ project. Rather than air any of this, though, the director acknowledged the older woman's criticisms with the mildly polite, " _When_ the battle station is finished, Governor Tarkin, the Senate will be of little concern."

"'When' has become 'now', Director Krennic. The Empress will tolerate no further delay. You have made time an ally of the Rebellion!" she snapped, eyebrows knitting together in distaste as she glared at Orsina. But it didn't take the experienced politician more than a moment to compose herself again, her expression merely cool as she surveyed the director. "I suggest we solve both problems simultaneously with an immediate test of the weapon. Failure will find you explaining why to a far less...patient audience," she finished with a barely discernible sneer.

Tarkin was giving her a chance to display what her creation was capable of? Why? Had she done something to sabotage the battle station? How could she have? The Death Star was _perfect_ – an impenetrable shell of destruction-dealing death. Perhaps there were other circumstances Orsina was unaware of? Or maybe the woman was allowing this purely to put her on edge, so that she might mess up when her moment arrived and lose her chance to get ahead. The director slowly shook her head as she clamped down tightly on her thoughts. It didn't matter. It couldn't. The Death Star was _beyond_ compromise. It didn't matter what Wilha Tarkin _thought_ she could do to halt Orsina's ascension. Nothing could. Success was in her grasp. She would take this opportunity so casually handed to her and march forward with it. She would _prove,_ to both Tarkin _and_ the Empress, just who the superior woman was.

"I will not fail," she declared with a slanted smile, a lick of pride firing awake in her heart as she watched Tarkin turn back to the viewport, her gaze drawn by the sight of the Death Star's main laser array being locked into place.

After so many years, the battle station was finally complete. All that remained was to unveil her unmatched supremacy to an unsuspecting galaxy. They had no idea just how close they were to true order – true _power._

Well, Orsina would just have to show them.

XxX

_Jin feels the cool plush of the carpet against his bare toes as he sneaks out of his room, moving down the hallway of the apartment toward the living area._

_The woman in white is back again. Mama says she's a friend, but Jin feels wrong every time she's in their home. He hasn't been able to sleep for feeling like's he's about to throw up._

_When he spies them in the living area, he sees Mama sitting on one of the couches with a half-full glass of some kind of clear green liquid. Papa and the woman in white are both standing. Papa's glass is full, but the woman's is nearly empty. As she gives a strong laugh, she raises the glass to Mama and drains the rest of it in one gulp. Mama offers up a small laugh of her own, rising from the couch to retrieve the woman's glass. But when she goes to refill them, she catches sight of Jin in the doorway. Smiling warmly at him, she sets the glasses down_ _and comes to him, holding out her arms for him._

_"What's the matter, Jin? You look frightened," she soothes, cradling him close as she carries him back to bed. For a moment, he can see his father's unhappy, uncomfortable expression. Burying his face in his mother's chest, he sniffles quietly while she holds him. "I'll always protect you."_

_**Will you?** _

_She tickles him as she lays him back in bed, getting a single small giggle out of him._

_"My Stardust...don't ever change."_

_He catches sight of the woman in white kissing his mother_ – _kissing her like she wants to swallow her whole...like she_ _ **owns**_ _her. He has to bite back a cry when Mama pulls herself free and slaps the woman hard across the face, turning away from her with tears spilling down her face. He wants to comfort his mama, but he's too afraid of the look in the woman's eyes_ – _a look of rage and hate._

_"...trust..."_

_Papa tying his pendant around his neck...the dim feeling of a glow or a faint hum from the crystal._

_"Gaila."_

_Sitting in his mother's lap...there's barely room for him with the large bulge of her belly. She helps him rest his head against the stretched skin so he can hear the baby inside moving._

_"My sister...my baby sister."_

_"...protect..."_

_Blaster fire. Climbing down into darkness...crying. There's light above, but...is it the way forward?_

_"The important thing is, even when you're afraid, or sad, or angry, taking it in stride and taking a step forward anyway."_

_"Jin Erso, son of Gaila Erso..."_

_"...what's the next step?"_

Jin jolted from his uneasy sleep with a small gasp, fingers momentarily scrabbling for the pendant around his neck. As he let his fingers glide over the smooth, cool surface in soothing motions, he tuned into the other sounds of the U-wing preparing for reentry.

"Coming into orbit. You have the controls," he heard Cassia saying to K-2. When he glanced in the rebel spy's direction, it was to see her fixing a wig of long black curls to her head. When he caught sight of her face, it was to find she'd also inserted a set of contact lenses that gave her eyes the appearance of a swirl of deep violet and red pigment – the eyes of the Allurian people.

"What?" the spy asked when she noticed him staring. "Never seen a wig before?"

"And that works for you, does it?" Jin tried to fire back. "To go about with fake hair on your head?"

The captain shrugged as she pulled on a thick, fur-lined coat to protect her from the moon's harsh cold. "With your history, I'd have thought you'd have a better appreciation of the finer points of espionage. You would be surprised how many people simply _don't see_ what's right in front of them," she finished before laying a cowl in his lap.

Jin contemplated the simple piece of fabric for several moments. Rather than put it on, he found his gaze drifting out one of the viewports, to the small red moon they were fast approaching. He'd never been to Jedha, but he'd heard of it. Who hadn't?

"That's Jedha," he heard Cassia say in response to his wavering attention, as if the super spy couldn't think of something less obvious to say, "or what's left of it. We find Sade, we find your mother."

Jin supposed he should feel something at that – finding his mother, his surrogate mother, any of his mothers, really. Anger? Joy? Anything at all. But all he could seem to manage was a vague sort of morbid curiosity. Following Cassia and K-2 about in a bit of a daze, he found himself wondering. Would either woman even _want_ to see him? They'd left him behind so long ago. How many more mothers could turn away from him in disappointment or disgust? So tangled up in his disparate thoughts was he that he didn't really find himself rejoining the mission until he heard the loud downblast of a star destroyer operating in atmo. Looking out from the small collection of cliffs and rockfalls they'd settled in, he could see the city of NiJedha in the distance, a holy place for some 73 percent of the galaxy's faiths. Instead of peaceful skies overhead, though, Jin caught sight of the destroyer he'd heard earlier. Shuttles were running to and from the behemoth ship like tiny insects swarming about their queen.

"What's with the destroyer?" he finally let himself ask as he wrapped the cowl around his head, only just noticing it clutched between his fingers.

"It's because of your old friend, Sade Gerrera," Cassia answered absently as she handed him the pair of quadnocs she'd been using. "She's been attacking the cargo shipments."

"What are they bringing in?" Jin asked, lifting the quadnocs to his eyes to have a look at the small shuttles.

"It's what are they taking out. Kyber crystal. All they can get. We wondered why they were stripping the temple. Now we know. It's the fuel for the weapon," Cassia explained.

"The weapon your mother's building," K-2 put in.

Stiffening slightly at the droid's words, Jin glanced sideways at her. Much as he appreciated a good sense of gallows humor, that almost seemed like it could be a problem in this instance.

"Maybe we should leave target practice behind," he suggested.

"Are you talking about me?" the droid asked, though she plainly knew he was.

Cassia surveyed K-2 a moment before nodding, gathering up the packs she'd prepared. "He's right. We need to blend in. Stay with the ship."

"I can blend in. I'm an Imperial droid!" K-2 protested indignantly. "This city is under _Imperial_ occupation."

"Look," Jin started as he got to his feet, retrieving the last of the equipment Cassia had left, "half the people here want to reprogram you and the other half want to put a hole in your head." Did he honestly have to explain to a _droid_ that she had no starsdamn filter?

"I'm surprised you're so concerned with my safety," the droid said, tilting her head in a fashion reminiscent of raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not," the smuggler clarified as he passed the armful of equipment to the droid. "I'm just worried they might miss you...and hit me."

Several minutes passed before Jin heard the droid quip, "That doesn't sound so bad to me," followed by the distinct sound of the armful of tools crashing to the ground.

He actually had to resist the urge to chuckle.

XxX

Kari had promised not to sneak away from the troopers when they were actively escorting her, but there was no such promise officially standing for when she was actually inside the installation. Therefore she didn't feel at all guilty for rerouting the security locks on her personal quarters and slipping free for a little stroll.

She'd known coming here, of course, that it would be difficult to find time with her mother these first few days. Mama hadn't been expecting her for another week, so she hadn't known to make time for her. It was yet another reason she'd been hoping to spend more time with Beni. Otherwise she'd be driven to distraction during the endless four-day wait. She wouldn't be getting to see her friend now, but she just might be able to send her a message or talk with her.

She and Beni shared a private comlink channel that Mama had set up for them. It was always fun to have during her tedious down time at the academy and Beni's dull flight times. She'd sent the cargo pilot a few pings earlier, but had received only static in response. Normally, she would've been able to leave a message, but even that function didn't seem to be working, so the first stop on her little tour was Beni's small bunk in the haulers' quarters. Slipping into the tiny room, she was relieved to find that Beni hadn't left the com behind on accident. What _was_ strange, though, was how tidy Beni's little space seemed to be. Beni Rook wasn't usually one for staying on top of the housekeeping, as it were. So it was an odd day indeed to find everything cleaned and put in its proper place.

"Hmm," she mumbled to herself as she went to the pilot's tiny desk to consult her datapad, which Beni had granted her access to so she could better keep track of her cargo schedules. The only entries she found were Jedha runs that had already been completed and a much longer run out to Onderon. But...Mama had said she was on a longer haul right now. Why wasn't the assignment scheduled? Had her surrogate older sister been granted higher clearance runs without telling her? Or had this happened so recently she hadn't had the chance? Mama _had_ been reluctant to talk about where Beni actually _was._ Maybe that was it. And if that were the case, she of _course_ had to congratulate the older girl, she thought with a devious grin. It was therefore a little sister's privilege to sneak into the installation's personnel archive in order to find out exactly where said pilot was.

The personnel archive was a _bit_ more of a challenge than slicing the security on her own room, but her victories against the high end security of the Eadu installation were always well worth the effort. Her mother would have a good, if scolding, laugh about it later and Beni would tell her how impressive it was. In this case, all it required was a small diversion – a few crossed wires and a decoy signal sent to the general archive's single guard, something about unauthorized access at the project archive. The project archive was a _much_ more likely target for enemy espionage. Who would notice a small blip in personnel in the meantime?

So, as the guard moved down the corridor to investigate the alert, Kari moved in the opposite direction with a pleased grin on her face, easily slicing the lock on the archive within moments. It was almost too easy.

Sealing the door behind her to conceal her presence, the girl quickly made her way to the bank of computers specifically dedicated to the cargo crew. It took her a hair longer than she wanted to gain access to the file she needed, but she'd been expecting to be rewarded with some exciting news about Beni's advancement.

What she got instead was a shock so profound it nearly had the world dropping out from under her feet.

Beni Rook's personnel file had been sealed. As the holoscreen flashed red before her eyes, Kari was almost too shocked to circumvent the alarm being generated for archive security. At first, all the data lock would reveal was that there was a warrant out for Beni's arrest.

"What?" she whispered in shock. " _Why?_ Tell me why!" she snarled as she tapped out command after command to the uncompliant machine, desperately seeking some kind of answer. This was all a mistake. It _had_ to be...

...except it was harder to deny the facts when she finally managed to retrieve a partial data packet from the arrest warrant. It gave no details – how, why, when, or where – but it did give a single damning word in clear, uncompromising aurebesh.

_Defector._

"No," Kari whispered, stumbling back from the console as the word flashed before her eyes. It couldn't be...there was no _way!_ Beni was her sister. Mama treated her like her own daughter. She was _family!_ Beni wouldn't just betray them – betray the _Empire._ Not like this. There _had_ to be some other explanation! There just _had_ to.

Nearly smashing her comlink in her haste to retrieve it, Kari pulled the small device from her belt and immediately began pinging, desperately trying to reach the other end of the line. She'd been a literal galaxy away from her friend and adopted sibling before, but she'd never felt as far away from her as she did in this moment.

 _Beni, please! Pick up. You_ _ **have**_ _to pick up! Tell me it's a mistake. Tell me it's not true! Tell me anything you want and I'll believe you! Just..._ _ **please.**_ _Don't do this. Where_ _ **are**_ _you?_ _**Beni!**_

XxX

At that moment, Beni was bound to a chair in a dimly-lit cell, slumped in her bonds and struggling for breath.

She'd struggled against the rebels as hard as she could, kicking and biting and writhing in her efforts to get free. To her minimal pride, it had taken no less than four of them to bind her and get her in the cell, but her fighting spirit mattered as little as it ever had in this moment. What was she even _doing_ here? An old woman had told her she could make a difference and she'd kriffing _believed_ her.

_Idiot!_

Beni tensed when she caught the sound of something shifting at the far end of the cell. Nearly unable to bring herself to look up, she peered into the flickering darkness beyond her immediate sphere and, beneath the striking flash of a poorly-maintained glow rod, she caught sight of something large, bulbous, and slime-coated.

" _Oh, stars..._ " she breathed out in abject fear as the _thing_ slowly moved closer.

She'd heard stories, from her Aunt Asana – stories of creatures like this who kept to the catacombs beneath the eldet of Jedha's already ancient holy places. Some who served light...others who served darkness...and some who had simply lost all care for the difference, who had simply devolved into soulless, hungry _beasts._ This monstrosity coming toward her now – which kind was it?

"Bor Gullet can _feel_ your thoughts," Sade's maddened voice came from somewhere behind her. "No lie is safe."

Beni would've screamed if she could've. Would've screamed until she couldn't breathe and her throat was scratched and raw from the effort.

_Why would I lie? What could I_ _**possibly** _ _have to lie about?!_

She had nothing left. Nothing but the message she'd already given up. The Empire would kill her if they caught her, and now it seemed this petty Rebellion was no better.

"What have you _really_ brought me, cargo pilot? Bor Gullet will know the truth," the Rebel leader half-crooned as the creature came upon Beni, a single, slime-covered tentacle sliding up her body and onto her face. Beni gave a tiny cry of fear and pain when she felt a sucker attach to her temple.

"Please...please..." she begged as more tentacles slithered up her restrained body, wrapping around her, seeping slime into her skin. "Please- don't do this." Before she could say more, another tentacle snaked its way up her neck, pressing forcefully against her nose and mouth. She fought not to breathe in for as long as she could, but eventually the need for oxygen overpowered her own will and her mouth opened without her permission, desperately sucking in a mouthful of the sludge on the creature's skin. She was surprised to discover that the stuff was tasteless on her tongue, but that small mercy didn't mean she wouldn't drown soon. Oxygen-starved, her lungs just took more of the alien slime into her body, seeking relief. All the while, she was engulfed by more tentacles, more and more suckers and siphons finding their way up to her head, and as the world grew darker around her, she could actually _feel_ them sinking into her thoughts, riffling through truths and secrets she'd never revealed to _anyone._ Sade Gerrera's voice only reached her one more time before she was dragged completely under.

"The unfortunate side effect...is that one tends to lose one's mind."

_Why am I here?_

_Beni...what's the next step?_

Somewhere in her fear-inundated, trance-like state, the pilot woke to the fact that she hadn't drowned. Whatever the fluid that was filling her body really _was_ , it was oxygen rich. She was actually _breathing_ it. And as the creature – _Bor Gullet_ – pulled her deeper and deeper into this surreal, dream-like state of suspension, it was able to penetrate all the further into her mind, grasping and stroking pieces of her soul she'd forgotten about...

Bits of guilt she wished she could forget...

Flickers of conviction she clung to in her weakness...

_"Do you like the Empire?"_

She's not sure she understands the question at first. Like? She just works for them. She'd had to leave questions of opinion far behind her in order to stay alive...to keep _Mother_ alive...

_"You're not_ _**really** _ _going to take that post, are you?"_ _Arran demands of her._

_"I don't think I have a choice," she tries to explain._

_"You_ _**always** _ _have a choice," her eldest brother insists with an angry snarl. "Those_ _**monsters** _ _killed Zev. How could you take even half a credit from them?"_

_"Then I suppose your precious Rebellion's going to pay for Mother's med bills?" she fires back. "One of us has to grow the kriff up and I guess it's not going to be you."_

**Zev makes a run for it as the street erupts in blaster fire and debris. The small generator he fought so hard to obtain for the sanctuary is clutched under his arm life a driftball. He almost gets clear, too, but then a neutron grenade bursts against an overhang and the force of it sends the youngest Rook crashing against a crumbling building. Beni screams in terror as a chunk of duracrete pounds her baby brother's head into paste against the wall before the entire structure comes down on top of him.**

**She can still hear Arran screaming.**

_"Our father fought against tyranny once," her brother reminds her. "Mother understands what it means to die for what you believe in. Maybe it's time to let her go."_

_"No!" she shouts, throwing off the comforting hand he'd tried to offer. "Alini's gone...and the baby...and Zev. I can't let anyone else die. I just_ _**can't!** _ _"_

_"Bordock piss!" Arran snaps at her. "This isn't about Mother. It's about you getting a chance to fly!"_

**Tears pour down Alini's face as she smiles up at Beni, her body wasted from giving birth to the tiny baby girl already lying as cold as stone against her breast.**

_**"Beni...please don't give up. Don't forget who you are. Please...little sister...remember your dream. Don't let your wings blacken and whither away."** _

**Then she's gone...resting safe with her baby where no one can ever hurt them again.**

_"HOW CAN YOU_ _**SAY THAT?!** _ _" she shrieks in her brother's face, tears of hurt spilling down her face. "I gave it up...I gave it_ _**all** _ _up when Alini needed my help, and it was all for nothing! No baby...no Alini...nothing. What do you_ _**want** _ _from me?"_

_"I want you to look Gerrit in the eye and tell him you're going to work for the people who killed his baby brother."_

_"Zev was my brother, too, Arran...in case you've forgotten who it was who took care of him before he could run around with the rest of you kyre moles. If you think I don't miss him every day, you don't know me at all. I don't want to miss Mother like that...or like Alini...or wonder if I'll ever see her again like Khem."_

_"But when the galaxy's free again-"_

_"Don't you_ _**get it?** _ _" she snaps. "It doesn't matter which side it is. Neither of them actually_ _**care** _ _about any of us. Someday's not good enough. Mother needs medicine now. You and Gerrit have to eat_ _**now.** _ _And if doing that means working for the people who put this city down in the first place, then I'll_ _**do it!** _ _"_

_So they go their separate ways. Her brothers to the underground and herself to train as a pilot. Though she doesn't advance as far as she wanted, she's still earning a paycheck. She sends everything she can to her mother, but in the end it changes nothing. Mother goes to the dust of Jedha...just like Zev...like Alini and her daughter._

_Beni drowns herself in the sea of indifference that permitted her to drift to the Empire in the first place. She stays alive, but she doesn't live...not until the moment a nine-year-old girl scrambles into the hold of her cargo ship and begs her not to tell the stormtroopers where she is._

_**"We should play hide and seek sometime," Kari says with a lopsided smirk. "I bet you know some great places to hide around here."** _

_In Kari, the family she's lost lives again. She's both sibling and the niece that never really lived. The lead scientist's daughter is like the little sister she's never had_ – _the devious, cackling, mad little sister she's never had. And Gaila Erso herself is the parent she's been missing. Down through the years, she gradually remembers what it's like to be happy..._

_...right up until Gaila asks her if she likes the Empire._

_It's not something she's let herself think about. It never would have made a difference to her life so she's pushed it away; ignored her own misgivings about exactly what it is she's been hauling._

_She doesn't answer Gaila right away. Just more of her usual two-stepping. She doesn't_ _**want** _ _to think about it, but it gradually starts to gnaw at her brain...until the day she's flying Kari back to the academy and Director Krennic is there on a visit, waiting to greet them._

_The director sweeps the girl into her arms as she runs to her. Beni's never quite understood Kari's fascination with Orsina Krennic, but it's not her place to pry. She watches from a distance, preparing to take her shuttle for refueling before heading off on her next leg, but when she looks up again, she really_ _**sees** _ _what's happening at the bottom of the boarding ramp._

_The director has her arms wrapped tightly around Kari and she's_ _**kissing** _ _her. Not a quick, chaste kiss on the forehead or the cheek, but a lingering, possessive one on the girl's lips. Beni's always wondered about Krennic's closeness with Kari, but as always, it's never been her place to say anything. Now, as she watches the director savor the disgustingly intimate kiss she's giving to a thirteen-year-old, the scattered pieces all align in the pilot's head. Krennic's been grooming Kari to become her trophy, a_ _**pet** _ _. Kari has no idea, either. She idolizes Krennic. She's always telling Beni she's just the sort of graceful, powerful woman she wants to be one day._

_Once the kiss is finally finished, the director grips Kari's chin in her fingers and delicately tilts her head back, leaning in to whisper something in her ear. From where she observes, Beni can almost imagine the woman is kissing the girl's neck as Kari trembles with laughter over whatever she's said._

_Krennic pulls the girl to her side, an arm snaking around her waist to hold her there as she escorts her back into the academy, clearly already imagining displaying her like this at the entrance to some Imperial military ball. And Kari, innocent and ignorant of her guardian's intentions, simply cuddles closer against the director, thinking it no more than parental affection. The last sight she catches of the pair is of Orsina Krennic caressing Kari's side as if neither glove nor school uniform separate their skin. Beni knows she's seen this behavior before_ – _back in the days when Khem used to work NiJedha's red light district._

 _All in a moment, Kari's future is laid out before Beni's horror-filled eyes. Feeling sick to her stomach, the pilot drags herself to the rear 'fresher and actually vomits. The thought of what this woman clearly plans to do to bright, funny, fun-loving Kari opens up a wellspring of guilt in her belly_ – _guilt for her ambivalence and her desire to simply not be involved. She can't do that anymore, not when innocent children like Kari are involved. She's finally ready to hear what Gaila has to tell her. When she returns to Eadu at the end of the run, she goes to the scientist before she can talk herself out of it, pounding on her door._

_"What have they done?" she asks in a heavy voice. "Tell me what they've done."_

_And so it all comes out. The Death Star_ – _the Empire's ultimate form of control._

_"Now that you know, Beni...what's the next step?"_

_**Why are you here?** _

_I'm here- to protect something precious...to save a child's life..._ _**every** _ _child's life._

_I'm here for Gaila._

_I'm here for Kari._

All of this and more Bor Gullet pulled from the depths of Beni Rook's heart. And all the while, the incapacitated pilot was completely unaware of the comlink still hidden within the folds of her flightsuit, blinking green with a message.

XxX

As a matter of course, Jin was not unfamiliar with cities under siege. They had been the common backdrop of his adolescent and teenage years and much as he sometimes wished he could call Sade on the fact that he'd basically been a child soldier, he knew she'd come right back with the argument that he was a capable adult now because of her training, and she wouldn't be wrong, either.

By the time he and Cassia had made their way to the Holy Quarter, he'd already plotted out three escape routes, picked up a second blaster and an old stun baton, and this was all without Cassia noticing. He'd felt naked ever since the Imperials had stripped him of his weapons upon arresting him, but he now felt properly clothed again with some means of defending himself; and he didn't doubt there was plenty to defend from. Many might've been taken in by the sights, sounds, and smells of the Holy City, but Jin had his guard well up, easily seeing the turmoil beneath the pretense of normal life. He saw the slim wares of the street vendors and the buildings in disrepair. He could hear the holo announcements blaring through the city from the provisional government, reports on a reward for the capture of the cargo pilot, assurances that the Empire's citizens would always be protected – the sounds of stormtroopers overturning stalls and searching through houses. Really, he was so attuned to the Imperial presence in the city, he barely noticed one of the passerby bump hard against his shoulder. All Jin noted was that he hadn't been pick-pocketed, but the other party seemed to be spoiling for a bit more.

"Hey! You just watch yourself!" the other being threw back, mostly humanoid.

"No, no! Sorry! We don't want any trouble," Cassia intervened before another word could be exchanged, quickly coming between the two and beginning to pull Jin away. "Sorry. Come on. Come _on,_ " she pressed more insistently, moving away from the potential brawl. Then she began to speak to Jin again, probably in an attempt to involve him in things and keep him out of trouble. "I had a contact. One of Sade's rebels, but he's just gone missing. His sister will be looking for him," she explained as she led the way through the Quarter. "The temple's been destroyed, but she will be there waiting. We'll give her your name and hope that gets us a meeting with Sade."

" _Hope?_ " Jin repeated incredulously as he came to a sudden stop, pulling the captain up short. If they were honestly risking their lives based on nothing but _hope..._

Only Cassia looked almost affronted as she turned to face him – like he'd somehow insulted her ancestors. Almost immediately, she snapped back, "Yeah. Rebellions are _built_ on hope."

Jin had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Really? She was feeding him one of _those_ lines? And here he'd been starting to think Cassia Andor was more intelligent and free-thinking than that. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like she might be just as brainwashed for this _cause_ as the rest of them. Rather than say this outright, though, he guided her eyes around the Quarter with his own gaze, pointing out everything the fighting was causing – everything being bought with her _hope._

"So this is all because of your pilot, then?" he asked derisively.

Cassia glared at him for a moment, growling low in her throat, but then she seemed to catch a glimpse of something, because her expression brightened and she told him only, "Wait for me," before heading off in another direction.

Jin could do little but shrug and cross his arms over his chest, stuck waiting in the middle of the bustling market. He was inclined to go on shutting out all the visual and auditory input the ancient city had to offer, but in spite of himself, he found the voice of one of Jedha's denizens getting through to him.

"May the Force of others be with you," the female voice intoned evenly, over and over again, like a strange sort of prayer or mantra. "May the Force of others be with you."

Taking a cursory glance through the crowd, his eyes lit upon an older beggar woman. He tried to keep his gaze from fixing on her, but he found himself caught when it occurred to him there was something familiar in the clothing she wore. Black and red robes – no doubt the traditional garb of some order or other, but what really caught his attention was the red sash at her waist. It reminded him too much of some of the things his father used to wear. He'd never really understood what they were for, just that there was something religious in their wearing, and it was this unfortunate spark of memory that had him trapped when the beggar's voice reached him again.

"Would you trade that necklace for a glimpse into your future?"

Wait- what?

She couldn't have been talking to him. Could she? Looking to the older woman's eyes, he found them to be milky and filmed-over with all the tells of blindness. Had she been able to see, she would've been looking in his direction, but that didn't matter, because there was no way she'd been speaking to him.

"Yes," she dispelled him almost immediately, "I'm speaking to you."

Jin felt beyond foolish as he moved closer to the fortuneteller. He knew _all_ these tricks. Why was he letting himself get pulled in by this act? The woman _looked_ harmless enough – blind, old robes draped over what was no doubt a failing body, the hair on the half of her head that wasn't shaved long and draping into her lap – but it was always the harmless-looking ones you needed to be careful of. He knew that better than most. However, as if she'd somehow heard his unvoiced mistrust, she smiled up at him.

"I'm Chirrin Îmwe," she introduced herself, reaching for the walking stick that was laid out in front of her and leaning on it as if she meant to stand, though she never did.

"How did you know I was wearing a necklace?" he asked in spite of his misgivings, just digging himself deeper in. More than the fact this woman clearly couldn't see his pendant, even if she'd been able to, the crystal was hidden away beneath his clothing. How was it this woman had thought to play him?

"For that answer, you must pay," she said, chuckling as she continued to smile at him, for only a moment seeming to be the street hustler Jin had taken her for. But then her expression grew somber, with only the smallest hint of her earlier amusement. "What do you know about kyber crystals?"

Again, before he could stop himself, Jin found he was answering her. "My mother, she- she said they powered the Jedi's lightsabers," he said, resisting the urge to reach for the pendant beneath his shirt. Thankfully, before he could do anything truly stupid, Cassia was materializing out of the crowd and seizing him by the arm.

"Jin, come on. Let's go," she snapped at him.

"The strongest stars have hearts of kyber," the blind woman called after him. Unable to stop himself from glancing over his shoulder, he saw the woman joined by another, this one clothed in a ratty flight suit and a dusty black cloak which concealed something on her back. Her hair was long and, though not so long as Chirrin's, was matted and dirty by comparison. Different as they appeared, Jin couldn't help noticing the tenderness in the second woman's touch when she laid a hand on the blind woman's shoulder. The beggar reached up her own hand to twine her fingers together with her companion's before climbing to her feet. Once again, Jin found himself reminded of his father, only this gesture reminded him of his father when he was with his mother. Could they...be...?

"Let's go," Cassia repeated in annoyance, pulling him forcibly back into the present. "We're not here to make friends. Come on."

"Who are they?" Jin asked vaguely, gaze continuing to drift back to the two women even as Cassia yanked him along.

"The Guardians of the Whills," she answered after a quick glance. "Protectors of the kyber temple, but there's nothing left to protect, so now they're just causing trouble for everybody," she finished with a snap, clearly with no more patience for all the religious flim flam than anybody.

"You seem awfully tense all of a sudden," Jin couldn't quite help pointing out, almost amused by the woman's frustration.

"We have to hurry. This town, it's ready to blow," Cassia told him, as if it wasn't something he'd been aware of from the moment they'd set foot in the city.

Hurrying through the throngs of pilgrims to who knew where, the pair suddenly found themselves pushed clear to make way for an armored vehicle trundling through the streets – a contingent escorting a new shipment of kyber to their garrison under guard. They were just passing through an open-air section that was surrounded by conveniently placed overhead bridges and walkways. Heavily cloaked "pilgrims" moved about the space and a slight breeze probably would've revealed that most of them were armed. It hadn't happened just yet, but Jin could taste it coming. He almost felt sorry for the poor oblivious bastards – almost. If only they weren't about to be caught up in an all out ambush.

"Tell me you have a backup plan," Jin demanded of Cassia just before the click of an arming detonator pierced his ears. He didn't see where the device came from. All he could manage to do was shove the spy behind a wall before the street erupted in flame.

The concealed partisans revealed themselves with flicks of their cloaks and vicious battle cries, firing on the Imperial troops as everything devolved into chaos. Drawing his blaster, Jin caught a glimpse of Cassia drawing hers as he looked out from their cover to try and get a better look at the layout.

"Looks like we found Sade's rebels," he said, coming out with a pained laugh, despite the fact that he wanted to bash his head against the wall. They'd found them, yes, but now they just might get a face full of superheated plasma before they could actually get a word in with anyone.

Cassia rolled her eyes before taking her own survey of the terrain. "Laugh it up, kid. Don't expect sympathy from me when you get a detonator in the face."

"We'll just see who gets a detonator in the face. You might look a sight better after one, wouldn't need to hide under wigs all the time."

"Look who's talking," Cassia snapped back, shooting him a slanted smirk through the heat of the blaster rounds. "You wouldn't be-"

Jin would've loved to hear the rest of Cassia's taunt, except that his ears zeroed in on yet another of those sounds he hated most.

The sound of a child crying.

Scanning the impromptu battlefield, his eyes picked out a small girl, bundled up in ragged clothing and sobbing in terror, unable to do anything but stand frozen in the midst of all the fighting and explosions. Jin certainly may have been scum, but one thing he wasn't going to do was leave a kid to die. Checking his route to the girl, he threw himself out from cover and made straight for her.

"Jin, _no!_ " he heard Cassia shouting, but he ignored her, moving through the blood and fire to reach the little girl, snatching her up and rolling to the side with her just as another detonator exploded nearby.

It took only a moment for a woman to emerge from the panicked crowd, screaming in a language Jin didn't know. She gave him a brief look of gratitude before taking the girl in her arms and disappearing back into the mob. Of course, it left Jin completely exposed in the middle of the fighting, but never mind that – a kid was safe, he thought, rolling his eyes in spite of his own feeling of relief.

"Get out of there!" he heard Cassia's voice again. Ducking clear of yet more fire, the nearest cover he could get to was the kyber transport vehicle itself. Not the best choice, but he would just have to take what he could get. Using the surprise of the nearby troopers against them at this decidedly idiotic move, he took aim at them, taking down two out of three.

Cassia, meanwhile, was watching the former partisan's escapades with bated breath, expecting him to get shot at any moment. Stupid kid. Their mission would be sunk if he somehow got himself killed. But would it have been better to let that little girl die?

The spy immediately pushed the thought away, knowing what the duty-bound part of her would answer. Instead, she focused on helping Jin _not_ die, taking aim at a partisan about to pitch a detonator down onto the vehicle. With one shot, she took him out, sending the detonator clattering harmlessly away. Then she was moving out into the open, seizing Jin by the arm and yanking him clear, urging him to follow her. She wasn't completely sure where yet. Away from the fighting would do for now. Unfortunately, that way away led them straight into a cadre of fresh stormtroopers.

Cassia took out two of the troopers before she noted Jin calling to her from a different direction. Ducking away, she followed the sound of his voice down yet another winding alleyway. She found him pressed into an alcove, hidden from the view of yet another fresh line of troops. Well, if they were just going to keep coming, the only thing to do was to fire right back. When one of the troopers caught sight of her, she quickly took him out, moving forward into the fray. She'd lost count of the troopers she'd taken down by the time her attention was drawn by a distinct cry of pain.

She turned to see Jin whaling on several more of the troopers, taking them out with both blaster and some sort of baton he must have picked up at some point. She watched the beat down with an appreciative smirk. Maybe this kid was good for something besides hiding and smuggling after all.

Jin himself was completely caught up in the rhythm of the fight, shifting with it from moment to moment like a dance. Here bashing one much taller trooper upside the head before twisting his arm to catch him behind the knees, there firing off three shots with his blaster. He was perfectly locked into the whirl and motion right up until the moment his latest blaster bolt melted through the chest plate of a K-X droid, whose eyes flared for a moment before darkening.

_Oh, kriff._

If that was Cassia's droid...

That fear was soon laid to rest when his victim crashed to the ground, revealing another K-X coming up just behind it. The droid paused a moment, glancing between its destroyed fellow and Jin's blaster.

"Did you know that wasn't me?" she asked in a tone Jin would've almost pegged as rattled, letting him know for certain that _this_ was the reprogrammed one.

"Of course," he lied with a shrug, taking a step or two back as the adrenalin dissipated. Good thing, too. He might've actually missed this snippy droid. When he stole a glance at Cassia, it was to find her smirking at the automaton.

"I thought I told you to stay on the ship," she scolded her.

"You did," K-2 agreed, "but I thought it was boring and you were in trouble," she said matter-of-factly as one of the troopers who wasn't quite down lobbed a detonator in her direction, which she easily caught. "There are a lot of explosions for two people blending in."

K-2 seemed to deliberately wait until the end of the detonator's click cycle to toss it harmlessly away, exploding in the faces of a fresh squad of troopers.

"You're right. I should just wait on the ship."


	4. A Precise Hit

Jin had to admit that he didn't much mind walking through the city with K-2 in tow. It made movement a fair sight easier not having to duck for cover every time they passed by a pair of stormtroopers on the street. They might actually be able to pull this off. He might also have to admit he was beginning to see why Cassia kept the droid around. Abrasive or no, the droid almost always gave a reason to be amused.

"Is a change in appearance truly going to make a difference today?" the security droid asked as Cassia worked, keeping them on the move while she worked to alter her surface look. "Everyone in this city is looking for a fight. I hardly think it will matter whom with."

"It always helps," Cassia said as she pulled back the snarl of curls that was her wig, tying it down with a clip-tie. "Like I keep saying, you'd be surprised how many people d-"

"Don't see what's right in front of them, yes, yes, I know," the droid finished with a flare of mechanized annoyance. "How human beings became sapient is quite beyond my capacity at this point."

Again, Jin had to resist the urge to chuckle at the droid's straightforward manner. His thoughts were soon turning elsewhere, though, when Cassia's fur-lined coat was suddenly thrust in his face.

"Put it on," she told him, barely waiting for him to take the thing in hand before slipping an expensive-looking shimmer silk wrap from her pack, quickly tying it around her waist.

"I- already have a coat," he tried to stammer in protest as he took in the warm-looking fur and the well-padded construction of the thing.

"Not like that, moon brain," Cassia snapped as she moved to help him. "Around your waist." With that, she took the coat back in hand and helped him tie it tightly around his waist, making sure his weapons were still in easy reach. Then she reached up to remove the cowl from his head, folding it until it was more of a band. Once it was to her liking, she tied the cloth around his forehead. Her final move was to remove her contact lenses with a single practiced flick of her fingers, casting them into the dust and leaving an almost completely different woman striding through the streets of Jedha. "The Imperials will be on the lookout for an Allurian in a fur-lined coat and a man in a cowl. We are now neither of those things."

"Not bad," Jin complemented.

"I'm glad you're impressed," the spy said with a fresh roll of her eyes. "Now if we could just-"

The discussion came up short when they blundered right into a square filled with stormtroopers investigating some disturbances related to the distant firefight. Trying to be casual, Cassia turned away, attempting to slip by. It was one thing to move past one or two troopers at a time, but a whole cadre...that was harder.

"Halt! Stop right there," one of the troopers called out to them, his suspicions apparently aroused. Jin winced minutely as they turned back to the man. "Where are you taking these prisoners?" he asked K-2.

Wait. He thought...? Kriffing stars, if their lives hung on K-2's ability to act...

"These are prisoners," the droid barely managed to say without the question mark in her voice.

Kriffed. Absolutely kriffed.

"Yes. Where are you taking them."

"I am- taking them- to imprison them...in- prison," K-2 offered up lamely. Jin could've groaned.

Seeing K-2 flounder, Cassia stepped in to try and guide her companion. "She is taking us to-"

"Quiet!" the droid snapped, hand springing up to deliver an honest to stars _smack_ to Cassia's face in an attempt to emulate perceived Imperial behavior. "And there's a fresh one if you mouth off again," she warned.

Jin winced again at the sound of metal connecting with flesh and bone, and to the unfamiliar, the look in her eyes might've been pain, but Jin would have to say that it looked to him the spy was actually trying to conceal amusement, despite the situation.

"We'll take them from here," the trooper suddenly announced, Jin almost able to picture his deadpan expression from the tone alone.

"That's okay. If you could just point me in the right direction, I can take them I'm sure," K-2 attempted to protest. "I've taken them this far."

"Take them away," the trooper captain snapped at some of his subordinates, now more harried than anything else. A few troopers stepped up to bind their hands.

"Wait! You can't take them away," K-2 started after them as the troopers began to drag them away, her mechanized tones bordering on something like distress.

"You! Stay here," the trooper captain ordered, moving to stop the droid's forward momentum. "We need to check your diagnostics."

"Diagnostics?" the security droid repeated in offense, as if the human had somehow insulted the factory that had machined her servos. "I'm capable of running my own diagnostics, _thank you very much._ "

At that point, Jin was honestly worried things might devolve into yet another fight. But that was the moment a strange fate seemed to intervene – a fate in the form of a familiar voice.

"Let them pass in peace."

All eyes in the square turned to the source of the voice. It was the blind beggar from earlier, making her way out of the shadows with the use of her walking staff. Very slowly, she made her way into the midst of the troopers, moving by the feel of the staff's tapping. "Let them pass in peace," she repeated, slower, almost chanting.

Was this old bat really crazy enough to try and throw herself in front of stormtroopers? Though Jin immediately felt bad about the insulting thought, it didn't make him any less right. Why would this woman be willing to risk her life like this...just for them? Jin had almost started to think she'd seemed nice. He didn't want to watch her get herself killed. Where was the taller woman? The one who'd been with her before? Maybe _she_ could help?

"The Force is with me," the woman, Chirrin, continued in that same chanted, almost songlike tone, "and I am with the Force, and I fear nothing for all is as the Force wills it," she declared, moving unafraid through the nest of enemies.

"Hey, stop right there!" the stormtrooper captain ordered, leveling his blaster at the woman.

"She's blind," another of the captain's troops pointed out, uncertainty in her voice.

"Is she deaf?" the captain snapped derisively, drawing his blaster up just that little bit higher. "I said 'stop right there'!"

Chirrin paid him no heed. She moved until _she_ chose to stop, coming to stand in the middle of all the troops, surveying them as if she could see them. For a moment, Jin had to wonder if this crazy old street beggar simply had a death wish. Only...no. Everything about this woman radiated strength and confidence. There wasn't one iota of despair in her, and in the next moment, the deceptive veneer of her calm exploded into a flurry of motion.

The blind woman kicked up a cloud of dust from the street, whirling away from the distracting motion to deliver crunching blows to the heads of two of the troopers. By the time the others had realized what was happening, she'd downed yet two more.

Jin watched in shocked amazement as the older woman danced nimbly between blaster bolts, coming up to deliver more devastating hits with her staff. When one trooper managed to grab her arm, she twisted the grip down and away, breaking the arm in the same motion she used to jab her staff into the foot of a trooper approaching behind her.

"Is your foot all right?" she asked with a half-serious grin, using the weight of the first trooper against him, flipping him onto his back as she twirled her staff effortlessly through the air, bringing it up against the second trooper's neck and using its momentum to force his body against hers, using him as a shield to block another slew of blaster fire.

Casting the dead stormtrooper aside, she used the staff to pivot upon the ground, vaulting the final distance to the last knot of troops. She landed among them and came at them from below, delivering blows up their bodies as she went. Flipping her hair into the face of one as a distraction she easily took down the other three before spinning back to the first one and sending him decisively to the ground before he could half raise his blaster against her. Then the whirling terror that was Chirrin Îmwe immediately dropped into a crouch, staff held in an offensive position as she scanned for further attackers. More troops were soon pouring into the square, but before Chirrin could get at them a volley of pinpoint blaster fire exploded over her head, taking out each of the stormtroopers. Jin's gaze darted to the far end of the square to see the other woman from earlier coming out of a sniper's crouch, the repeater cannon barrel she held in her hands still whining as its power wound down.

"You almost _shot_ me," Chirrin said primly as she came to stand at her full height, one hand gripping her staff while the other tamed her barely-ruffled length of black hair.

"You're _welcome_ ," the larger woman shot back gruffly as she came to her companion, tossing her yet another weapon she'd been carrying, which Chirrin easily caught as she moved to sit on one of the downed troopers. Jin didn't recognize the weapon at all, but he supposed it could have been some type of old-fashioned bowcaster.

"Clear of hostiles," K-2 said as the group moved out from the cover they'd unwittingly taken during the fighting, only for Chirrin's companion to immediately whip up the cannon to take a shot at the Imperial droid. "One hostile!"

"She's with us!" Jin protested as K-2 raised her hands, flinging himself out in front of the droid without thought.

"They're all right," Chirrin said easily, waving a hand in their direction, and Jin was amazed to watch this heavyset bruiser of a woman who didn't look like she took orders from anyone simply raise an eyebrow and slowly lower her weapon, all on the word of the slighter Chirrin.

"Cassia...I'm sorry about the slap," the droid apologized hesitantly as she undid the binders around hers and Jin's wrists.

"Go back to the ship," the rebel agent said firmly, though she did offer the droid a small smile to let her know it was forgiven. "Wait for my call."

As K-2 made her way away from the square, Cassia turned her attention to the two women, eyeing them uncertainly. Chirrin didn't seem to be paying them much mind, so the spy turned her question to the other woman. "Is she Jedi?" she asked, looking like she wasn't certain what she'd do with the information if the answer turned out to be 'yes'.

"There are no Jedi here anymore," the woman snapped back in an almost threatening tone, squaring her wide set shoulders as if _daring_ them to challenge the statement, "only dreamers like _this_ fool," she finished, nodding toward her companion.

"The Force did protect me," Chirrin said with a casual shrug.

" _I_ protected you," the woman snarled impatiently in a tone that said they'd had this argument many times before. Chirrin merely smiled tolerantly, her expression both fond and exasperated as she rolled her sightless eyes in a way that was almost peaceful.

"Can you get us to Sade Gerrera?" Jin stepped in to ask. Chirrin's companion raised an eyebrow at him before rolling her eyes skyward in a clear 'stars give me strength' expression just before a cadre of rebels burst into the square, seizing every last one of them and training blasters on them.

"Bentac, this can't be right," one of them protested to the Tognath commander. "These aren't the same two. The shooter was an Allurian woman."

" _It's them,_ " the Tognath snapped in her own language as she surveyed Jin and Cassia. " _You do not fool me. Your bio signature is the same._ "

"Can't you see we are no friends of the Empire," Chirrin protested as she attempted to shake off one of the soldiers that held her, though it was quite plain to anyone who'd seen her fight that the boy only had a hold of her because she was allowing it.

" _Tell that to the one that killed my men,_ " the Tognath, Bentac, growled in response, her tone conveying the glare that was concealed beneath her breathing apparatus.

"Anyone who kills me or my friends will answer to Sade Gerrera," Jin interrupted before the Tognath could condemn them further.

" _And why is that?_ " Bentac asked, tilting her head condescendingly to the side.

"Because I'm the son of Gaila Erso," he answered, certain the name would get a reaction, and he wasn't wrong. The Tognath straightened her head, staring at them in silence for a moment before nodding to her soldiers.

" _Take them!_ "

Jin caught sight of the larger Guardian's exasperated expression before a bag was shoved over her head, but nothing after that, as that was when the rough fabric of a bag was forced down on his own head. The only other reaction he caught was Chirrin's cantankerous protest of, "Are you kidding me? _I'm blind!_ "

XxX

Cassia had the ability to track where she was taken with other senses when her primary ones were impaired, though she wasn't familiar enough with Jedha's layout for the trick to work perfectly. All she could really manage was to trace their distance from the Holy City, which might prove useful for the return trip if Gerrera's group proved less than accommodating in that regard.

Other than the distance, all the rebel spy really had to go on was the feel of blown sand against her skin, the rank scent of unwashed bodies in close quarters, and the raucous sound of off-duty partisans as they were herded into a base of some kind. Cassia carefully memorized the winding path through the partisan hideout, annoyed, but not surprised when she was suddenly stripped of her weapons and extraneous clothing. She was stripped down to pants, boots, and her inner shirt and cringed inwardly when a wayward hand traced inside the belt line of her pants, clearly itching to reveal more of her.

" _Female should know better than to meddle where she not wanted,_ " a male voice panted in broken Huttese. " _Need a_ _ **teacher.**_ "

" _Take these binders off,_ " she challenged her captor in flawless Huttese, struggling to master herself when pudgy, sweaty fingers slid further into her clothing, trying to get a feel of her. She could feel the hot, heavy breath of an excited creature through the fabric of the sack. " _I'll_ _ **teach**_ _you just how much_ _ **female**_ _I am._ "

"Kindly remove that tentacle if you wish for it to remain attached to your person," Cassia heard Chirrin voicing her displeasure. This warning was followed only moments later by a _snap_ and a sharp scream of pain. Grinning in amusement, Cassia used her own captor's distraction to drive her knee forward into who knew which part of his anatomy.

Whatever it was, it did the trick. The being cried out in pain, snatching his hand back, but not before a set of sharp claws dug into the tender flesh of her thigh. The only sign of pain she gave was a small hiss, but the being she'd attacked was still howling in pain.

" _Little bitch,_ " he snarled. " _Little_ _ **bitch!**_ "

"Later!" another voice snapped. "They will keep til later. Sade doesn't have to know."

Well, that certainly put a timer on things. Complete the mission and escape before she could wind up as the war prize for some lug-headed partisan who'd spent the last two years blue-balled by fighting. Cassia was ready the moment the concealing sack was snatched from her head. She had only an instant to snarl at a hulking alien before being shoved into a cell. She tried to make a run at the door before it was closed, but it slammed shut in her face just a little too quickly.

The rebel agent slammed her hands against the cell door in frustration, growling out at the ramshackle band of fighters to give them the impression she was a loose cannon who didn't need to be taken seriously. Once they'd all dismissed her, she began to monitor them individually, pinpointing helps and hinderances. Between these information surveys, she also put her focus on just what it would take to pick the electronic lock on the cell door. Thankfully, they hadn't searched her thoroughly enough to discover the laser pick kit in her boot. She'd have to wait until their guard was truly down before making her move, but it shouldn't be _too_ much of a problem.

The two former Guardians occupied the cell with her, but there was no sign of Jin. Likely he'd been taken to Sade. Whether that was good or bad, Cassia couldn't say yet. She had to focus on getting to him and getting out alive, preferably with information on how to find his mother.

_You know, so you can murder her in front of her only son._

_No,_ she snapped at herself. No time to be thinking like that now. She had orders, a mission to complete. This was no time to get sentimental.

"You are injured," a gruff voice suddenly sounded right in her ear.

It took every ounce of Cassia's self-control not to jump. Glancing to her side, she saw the second Guardian standing against the wall next to the cell door – the woman with the repeater cannon. For a moment, she just glared at the woman, taking several minutes to finally follow her gaze down to her leg, where the inseam of her pant leg was already staining red with the pinpricks of blood seeping through the fabric.

"No," she said, attempting to shrug the other woman's attention off.

"No?" the older woman repeated dubiously, raising an eyebrow as she surveyed her.

"Well, yes, but not badly," she insisted, still trying to ignore the probing gaze. "It's just a leg wound. It'll bleed a lot before it stops. It won't kill me."

"I wouldn't be too sure. That was a Trigoran that stuck his claws in you."

Cassia winced at this information, groaning as she banged her head against the cell door. That was a bit more of a problem. Trigoran mating habits were a bit less...consensual than other beings'. A Trigoran male could deliver a mild neurotoxin via his teeth or claws. The toxin would leave a Trigoran female dazed or even unconscious long enough for a mating to be completed, but...someone like her, a human...that toxin _could_ kill her if left untreated. Under other circumstances, there might be hope that her attacker's claws hadn't been delivering when they'd pierced her, but she'd been only too aware of the fact that he'd been aroused at the time. It was almost a guarantee she'd gotten an even greater concentration pumped into her, and her immunization package only covered disease, not toxins. She would need to synthesize an antidote back on the ship.

"Two hours," she said softly, letting the Guardian know she understood what was happening. "No longer."

The woman's only response was to nod, but then she gave a wince of her own when she overheard what her companion was doing. The other Guardian sounded to be chanting a mantra of some kind.

"I am one with the Force. The Force is with me. I am one with the Force. The Force is with me."

"Praying? Really? She's _praying_ for the door to open," she groaned as she leaned heavily against the wall.

"It bothers her because she knows it's possible," Chirrin broke off with an antagonizing grin. "Ambeiza Malbus was once the most devoted Guardian of us all."

"So what? Now she's just _your_ guardian?" Cassia bit back as she fished out her pick kit, trying to get a bead on whatever the situation between the two women actually was. Neither of them rose to her bait, though. They only continued to communicate in whatever strange, silent way they had. After a time, Cassia just turned her attention over to the lock to start her work. "Well, I'm beginning to think your Force and I have different priorities."

"Relax, Captain. We've been in worse cages than this one," Chirrin told her with a small gesture around the cell.

"This is a first for me," she lied, struggling to pull her attention away from the older woman and get back to to work.

"There is more than one sort of prison, Captain," the Guardian said quietly. "I sense that you carry yours wherever you go."

It was a mystic's illusions, Cassia scolded herself before permitting herself to turn back to the _former_ Guardian. Smoke and mirrors, emptier than the air. Those words were so vague as could be applied to _anyone._

And yet, Cassia realized as she continued to work at the lock...

...no one had _told_ Chirrin she was a captain. She was out of uniform. How did the old sage know?

XxX

Jin had already been split off from the others by the time the sack was removed from his head. He was shoved roughly through the many twisting byways of whatever catacomb Sade's band was occupying these days. From time to time, he thought he glimpsed someone he recognized from the old days, but he never allowed his gaze to linger long enough to be sure. There was no point to it. The Cause destroyed them all in the end.

Was it about to destroy him, as well? Who could say? He'd once looked to Sade as a mother, but...well...she'd proven what was more important to her a long time ago. Would she welcome him with open arms? Turn him away? Or would she simply kill him? Cut him out of her life as she had so many others? All for her bloody _Cause!_ As it stood, Jin honestly had no idea which option he'd prefer.

Dying would be easy. Being welcomed as an ally might be harder. It would mean opening the other door in his mind marked 'Mother', and that...that was more than he wanted to try and put his head around. They'd _both_ turned away from him once already. He'd hardened himself against a moment like this all these years and, even now, he knew he couldn't bear to have them both reject him _again._

 _No. Don't think about it. It doesn't matter,_ he scolded himself as Bentac hurried him along. The only thing that mattered was completing this mission and getting as far away from all of them as possible. Jin was as ready as he was ever going to be when he and his escort came to a halt outside of what was no doubt Sade's chamber. Bentac brusquely removed the binders at his wrists and nodded toward the entryway with a harsh command. When Jin didn't respond right away, he was shoved bodily through the archway.

He stumbled the first few steps into the surprisingly airy space. Unless he'd missed his best guess, it had been a chapel for a monastery of some kind at one point. It was much less...hideaway...than he was used to from Sade, and when Sade herself clomped into view from another partitioned-off alcove, Jin was almost pained to see that that wasn't the only thing that was different.

Sade Gerrera, the matriarch with a BlasTech rifle, the woman who had rebelled against the Rebellion, was little more than a crumbling husk of a human being. Jin could see where the almost theatrical quality of the pressure suit she wore might intimidate enemies, but beneath that, _he_ could see how it was only just holding his former mentor together. At least one limb had been visibly replaced with a metal prosthetic – the source of the clomping, clanging gait. More than this couldn't be seen, but who could say what further damage was hidden beneath the suit? To most, he had no doubt the woman gave the appearance of a fierce and indomitable rebel leader, but Jin...Jin just saw a tired, broken old woman. Though, ultimately, not even _those_ assessments quite fit with the warm, welcoming smile that lit the old warrior's face upon catching sight of him.

"Jin? Is it really you?" she asked as she hobbled her way forward. "I can't believe it."

Jin shook himself off, not having expected such a glowing reception. In order to keep back his shock, both at Sade's condition and at her apparent joy, he was careful to keep his expression indifferent.

"It must be quite the surprise."

Sade's face fell at the cool reception. "Are we not- still...family?" she asked, taking a few faltering steps closer. Jin took a few steps _back_ in response, a glare slipping through his mask.

"The last time I saw you, you gave me a knife and loaded blaster and told me to wait in a bunker until daylight."

Sade shrugged, as if she couldn't understand what about that statement was problematic. "I knew you were safe."

_I didn't._

"You left me behind," he bit out, struggling to go on looking her in the eye.

"You were already the best soldier in my cadre," she said, not by way of compliment, but of fact.

"I was sixteen!" Jin argued, taking a few harried steps back toward her, trying to make her understand.

"I was protecting you!" Sade snapped, the first signs of anger showing in her haggard face.

"You _dumped me!_ " he shouted in hurt as he pressed forward, feeling tears prick at the backs of his eyes. That, he was absolutely _not_ going to let happen. He was _not_ going to break down in front of this woman.

"You were the son of an _Imperial science officer!_ " Sade hissed, suddenly leaning heavily on her walking stick as the weight of her emotions caught up with just how much her body was physically able to bear. When she spoke again, it was in more of a wheeze. "People were starting to figure that out...people who wanted to _use_ you- as a hostage. I could never allow that. I did what I _had_ to, my child...as I have always done," she drifted off, taking a few heavy, hobbled steps closer. Briefly, her hand rose, as if to reach out and touch him, but she seemed to think better of it. "Not a day goes by that I don't think of you...my son."

That was what did it for Jin. That was what told him exactly how far gone Sade was. They had always been close, but for her to actually name him as her son...she obviously didn't have many words left to spend, and the sorrow in her dark eyes suddenly began to shift to fear and suspicion.

"But- today...of _all days_...it's a trap. Isn't it?"

"What?" Jin asked, tone a mix of annoyance and actual confusion.

"The pilot! The _message!_ All of it!" she ground out in anger, but then something shifted in her eyes as a thought began to occur to her. Then all that was left in her face was something like heartbreak – shock and betrayal. "Did they- send you...did you come here...to kill _me?_ " she asked, her voice dropping to a whisper, but as the hurt built in her expression, she also managed a small bark of bitter laughter as she gestured to her broken body. "There's not much of me left."

"The Alliance wants my mother," he explained, taking a step back once again in an effort to draw away from Sade's pain, back into his own indifferent shell. He didn't want to see this. He didn't want to see strong, unconquerable Sade falling to pieces. "They think she sent you a message about a weapon. I guess they think by sending me you might actually help them out."

Sade eyed him wearily as she measured her own response. "And what is it that _you_ want...Jin?"

"They wanted an introduction, now they've got it. I'm out now," he said with a shrug. "The rest of you can do what you want."

The look Sade settled on was not disappointment. Jin would've almost preferred that. He had seen Sade _disappointed_. All she was now was tired – so very tired – as if she couldn't summon up the energy to be anything else.

"You care not...about the Cause?" she asked him.

"The Cause? _Seriously?_ " Jin hissed, looking up at the once towering Onderonian. "The Alliance? The rebels? Whatever it is you're calling yourselves these days...all it's ever brought me is pain."

Sade shook her head, and Jin would've given almost anything to have her get angry at him again.

"You can stand to see the Imperial flag reign across the galaxy?" she pressed.

"It's not a problem if you don't look up," he muttered, only just managing to hold Sade's gaze as he tried to give her all of the pain, fear, anger, and doubt this obsession of hers had given him all these years, all from beneath his crumbling shell of indifference.

Sade gazed at him for what felt like a long while, taking all that time to come to some sort of decision, and when she did, she nodded and stood a little straighter.

"I have something to show you."

XxX

In spite of the threatening pall hanging over the Death Star's very first test, Krennic couldn't quite help but feel proud as she stood on the battle station's bridge properly for the first time. She had worked long and hard to arrive where she was today so, truly, was it wrong of her to allow herself a moment of pride? After all, just as soon as this project was proven a success, she would be, indisputably, one of the most powerful women in the galaxy. Even Wilha Tarkin's sudden presence at her side couldn't completely dampen her excellent mood.

"The Empress is awaiting my report," the governor said, snidely reminding the director of the fact that Tarkin herself was still the one with the direct line to their supreme leader.

Tarkin couldn't _completely_ dampen her mood, no, but _stars_ , if she didn't come close.

"One'd hope that she and Lady Mitera would have _been here_ for such an occasion," she pointed out, glaring sideways at the governor.

"And I thought it prudent to save you from any potential embarrassment," the woman fired right back in her typical biting, controlled tone.

Orsina took a longer moment to glare at the governor head on before moving closer to the main viewport, through which the red intensity of NaJedha's desert moon was brilliantly visible. "Your concerns are hardly warranted," she threw back at the older woman, as if it cost her nothing to be flippant with the governor.

"If saying it would only make it so," Tarkin snapped cleanly, cool and self-possessed as ever.

Orsina shook her head, continuing to half-glare half-sneer at the woman. "All Imperial forces have been evacuated and I stand ready to destroy the entire moon."

Briefly, Tarkin shuddered, as if she found Orsina's zeal distasteful in some way. "That won't be necessary. We need a statement, not a manifesto. The Holy City will be enough for today," she said, turning her attention away from Orsina and out to the vibrant and living world before them with no idea of its impending fate, as if she suddenly couldn't be bothered with the fact that Orsina was there at all.

Grumbling low in her throat, Orsina quickly snapped out to the deck officer, "Target Jedha City. Prepare single reactor ignition." Wilha Tarkin wanted to see what her battle station could do? Then by all the stars in the galaxy, she would show her.

"Sir, we're in position t-" one of the officers began.

" _Fire!_ " she snarled, and overhead the primary deck controller began the steps to countdown.

"Commence primary ignition."

XxX

"Who's the one in the next cell?" Cassia vaguely heard Chirrin asking. At first, Beiz's responses were just as vague in her awareness as she continued to chisel away at the lock.

"What? Where? An Imperial pilot!" the larger woman snarled.

Wait. A pilot? And Imperial? It couldn't be. Could it? No way it was that easy. But of course it wasn't, because Beiz's next words certainly put more of a damper on things.

"I will _kill her!_ Come here!" she shouted as she reached through the bars between their cells to throttle whoever was in the next cell.

"No! NO, no, wait!" Cassia shouted as she jumped up, scrambling as fast as she could toward the enraged former Guardian to keep her from destroying one of the only leads she might get on this miserable dustball. "Back off. Back off!" she snarled as she latched onto the much larger woman's arm, needing the full weight of her small body to even make a dent in Beiz's intent. Finally seeing how serious she was, the mercenary stepped back from the partition, shrugging as she allowed Cassia through to see inside. "Okay, okay. Are you the pilot?"

The woman lying in the next cell didn't seem to hear her at first. She lay on the dirty stone floor as if she'd simply been dragged there and dropped, unable to move from the spot. She looked to be conscious, but unaware of anything around her, like looking at the world beyond herself was just too painful.

"Hey? Hey?" Cassia prodded desperately, _needing_ the woman's answer. "Are you the pilot? The shuttle pilot?"

"Pilot?" the woman repeated uncomprehendingly, her voice hoarse. From disuse? From screaming? Who could say? Upon closer inspection, Cassia found there wasn't an inch of her body that wasn't covered in some sort of slick fluid. Her long black hair hung unbound in clumps, sticky with the stuff. With a disgusted shudder, Cassia barely permitted herself to wonder if this woman had been subjected to the same tortures the other partisans had been threatening to inflict on her.

"What's wrong with her?" Chirrin stepped in yet again, more guiding than actually asking.

"Gaila Erso," Cassia threw the name out in desperation, relieved to see a tiny flicker in the woman's vacant gaze. "You know that name?"

"I- brought the message. I'm the pilot," she mumbled blearily, as if struggling to pull herself out of deep water. When she finally turned her face upward to look Cassia in the eye, there was a sick, desperate look in her brown eyes – like she couldn't be sure of what she'd said and she needed Cassia to tell her if it was all true or not true. "I'm the pilot. _I'm the pilot._ "

"Okay, good," Cassia allowed herself to respond, not wanting to read too deeply into this other woman's pain. Again, only briefly, she found a very unsettling thought flashing across her mind. Was _this_ what they were doing to Jin right now? Shaking herself off, both from worry and from the beginning feelings of poison in her veins, she continued to press the pilot. They _had_ to get out of here.

"Where is Gaila Erso?"

XxX

"This is the message I was sent," were the only words Sade spoke as she nodded Jin's attention toward a hologram flickering to life. It took Jin no more than a moment to recognize his mother – much older, face lined and careworn, features blurred by the holorecording, but still his mother.

"Sade," her voice came through, static-laced at first, but ultimately smoothing out, "if you're watching this, then perhaps there's a chance to save the Alliance. Perhaps there's a chance to explain myself, though I don't dare hope for too much- a chance for Jin, if he's alive, if you can possibly find him, to let him know that my love for him has never faded and how desperately I've missed him."

What was this? This wasn't what he'd expected at all. If he'd been honest, he was expecting more disappointment, more dismissal and more pain. Not this.

"Jin, my son, my Stardust, I can't imagine what you think of me," his mother's voice came to him across the distance. He tried to turn his head a little, tried to look away from the sight of Gaila Erso's pleading eyes, but he couldn't manage it. He could only look her in the eye as she bared her heartbreak to him. "When I was taken, I faced some bitter truths. Your sister was born that night. I gave her the name Lyra...for your father...but Orsina wouldn't have it. She stripped the name away, took my daughter from me, and I was told that soon enough she would have you, as well. As time went by, I knew that you were either dead or so well-hidden she would never find you."

He had a sister. _He had a sister!_ The thought had nagged him for so many years – that she might be out there somewhere. Now he knew. The sister he'd never had a chance to protect – that he'd _promised_ to protect...no doubt some Imperial brat now. But that unaccountably empty place in his heart had a name now.

Sister. Sister was...Lyra.

"I knew that if I refused to work, if I took my own life it would only be a matter of time before Orsina realized she no longer needed me to complete the project. So I did the one thing nobody expected. I lied. I learned to lie. I played the part of a beaten woman resigned to the sanctuary of her work. I made myself indispensable and all the while, I laid the groundwork of my revenge," his mother explained, lifting her head up in a moment of pride. The aching sorrow from the beginning of the message transformed into something hard and angry. Gaila Erso maintained her composure, but there was a spark in her eyes, something that spoke of a slow-burning _rage_ made up of years – of betrayal and loss. "We call it the Death Star. There is no better name, and the day is coming soon when it will be unleashed. I've placed a weakness deep within the system, a flaw so small and powerful, they will never find it."

Somewhere in the back of Jin's mind, a switch flipped. This was it. This was the information that Cassia and the others were after. He knew he ought to pay attention; he knew it was important, but it still wasn't in any way what he was latching onto in all of this. He was latching onto the fact that his mother had sacrificed her own freedom in order to strike back at the people who had killed her husband, who had taken her children from her. Gaila Erso had never lost faith. She'd never ceased looking for a way forward. And what had Jin himself done? He'd run away. He'd hidden. He'd dismissed the last little bit of family he'd felt so certain had deserted him for the Empire. He _had_ lost faith. He had no right to be standing before this woman now, hologram or no.

"But Jin, Jin, if you're listening, my beloved...so much of my life has been wasted. I try to think of you only in the moments when I'm strong because the pain of not having you with me...your father, your sister, our family...the pain of that loss is so overwhelming I risk failing even now. It's just so hard not to think of you, to think of where you are- my Stardust," the old woman choked out, the glint in her eyes either a glitch in the hologram or the first sign of tears. "Your sister is- very much like you. Strong, stubborn, can't be told she might be wrong. I've tried my best all this time, to have some say in how she's come up, but it's been difficult with Orsina watching at every turn. She's- very much lived as a ward of the Empire, but she's a smart girl. I believe- that if you _do_ ever meet her, it won't take much to convince her of the truth of things. I hope the two of you do meet...someday," she said, and this time, Jin knew it wasn't the quality of the hologram playing tricks on him. Those were tears he saw sliding down his mother's face. But it didn't take her long to shake herself off, turning her gaze outward once more as if turning her attention to another person.

"Sade, the reactor module, that's the key. That's the place I've laid my trap. It's well-hidden and unstable. One blast to any part of it will destroy the entire station," his mother relayed, her face and words suddenly beginning to go bleary with some sort of atmospheric interference. "You will need the plans. The structural plans for the Death Star to find the reactor. I know there's a complete engineering archive in the data vault at the citadel tower on Scarif. Any pressurized explosion to the reactor module will set off a chain reaction that will destroy the entire st-ati-"

As the message cut out, unable to carry on through whatever the disturbance was, Jin Erso collapsed to his knees, silent tears spilling down his face as his entire world caved in on him...

...little realizing that the world was _literally_ caving in on him.

XxX

Cassia didn't pay attention to the distant sound of explosions at first. This was a war zone. Explosions were a matter of the everyday. Probably another band of partisans having a go at another kyber escort.

But then even the foundations of the monastery began to shake, heaving back and forth with the tremors of the small moon, and it was enough to cause Cassia to pull her attention away from the pilot. _This_ location hadn't been hit, that much was plain. But for impact tremors from Jedha City to be felt at _this_ distance? Something bad was happening. When the thought finally occurred to her, it was a struggle to get back to her feet instead of just letting her knees crumple beneath her.

The planet killer couldn't have come to Jedha.

Could it?

Fighting against the sudden fear in her chest, Cassia used the chaos to her advantage, simply yanking a connector loose from the lock on their cell and heading straight for the rack where their weapons and other gear had been stowed. The first thing she retrieved, even before her blasters, was the shimmer silk wrap that had been taken from her. It was foolish, she knew, but it had been a gift from Leigh – one of the few she had. Once that was secure, she went for her weapons, then for her comlink.

"K-2!" she barked into the device. "K-2! Where are you?!"

" _There_ you are," the droid's bemused voice came over the channel. "I'm standing by as you- requested, although there's a problem on the horizon. There's _no_ horizon."

"Locate our position! Bring that ship in here _now!_ " she snapped before heading off in the direction she'd earlier pegged as the way to Sade's chambers.

"Where are you going?" Beiz's voice sounded after her.

"I have to find Jin," she called back. "Get the pilot. We need her!"

Beiz rolled her eyes at the younger woman's urgency before going to secure her canon around her shoulders once again. "All right. I'll get the pilot," she growled before tossing Chirrin her staff, which the other woman caught without so much as batting an eye. She certainly didn't need Beiz's help. She'd be able to retrieve the rest of her gear on her own, leaving Beiz free to accomplish the distasteful task of liberating an Imperial.

"Pilot!" she warned the young woman as she raised the barrel of her weapon to take aim at the cell lock. She'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the instant of fear in the young pilot's eyes when she let her think she was just going to shoot her and have done with it.

"NO, no, no!" she shouted in terror, covering her face with her hands, but Beiz simply shot out the lock, leaving the door free to slide open.

"Let's go!" she shouted in the Imperial's shocked face, waving her through. When the pilot proved unable to rise from the floor, Beiz went in and bodily lifted her, setting her on her feet and shoving her out in front of her.

Chirrin shook her head at her in a way that very much said, 'you should know better than to frighten little girls.'

Her only response was a roll of her eyes and an exaggerated chuff that translated to, 'a little scare never hurt anyone.'

XxX

None of the partisans paid Cassia any mind as she hurried through their base. They were all too preoccupied with saving their own lives to worry about one little escaped prisoner. Good thing, too, because she wasn't up to her usual tricks of charming her way into places. With each passing moment, she found herself getting more and more lightheaded. If she couldn't get back to her ship _soon_ -

" _Jin!_ " she shouted as she burst into Sade's chamber. The first thing she noticed was the woman herself coming at her, readying a staff to be used in defense, but then the partisan really seemed to hear the name she'd shouted and backed off, revealing that it was Jin she'd been moving to protect.

Jin was huddled on the floor of the chamber, collapsed in upon himself with a look of shocked sorrow in his eyes. The typical wry smirk and quiet, defensive humor were all gone. There wasn't even the slightest sign he was aware of what was happening around him.

"What did you do to him?" she demanded as she dropped to her knees before the shell-shocked man.

"It was more than he was prepared to hear," the old woman said in a voice filled with sorrow. "But then...perhaps it was just enough."

"Jin?" she repeated, leaning in and shaking him to wake him from his daze. "Hey...we've gotta go. Listen, I know where your mother is."

That finally got through to the catatonic young man. When he blinked and looked to Cassia, it was with the revelation that the shaking apart of his own world had somehow manifested in the waking world. The moon seemed almost to be shaking itself apart.

"Go with her, Jin," Sade encouraged, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You must go."

"Come with us," Jin found himself pleading, reaching a hand up to grasp the one on his shoulder.

"I will run no longer," was the only answer Sade would give, stating plainly to Jin what the truth of the matter was, "but you must save yourself!"

"Come on," Cassia urged him, pulling him to his feet with strength he hadn't imagined she had.

"GO!" Sade shouted at them when he hesitated. Jin couldn't do much to stop Cassia as she dragged him along.

"There's no time," the Rebel agent insisted as she led the way out of the chamber, barely managing to avoid being hit by a tumble of rocks shaken loose from the ceiling.

"Save the Rebellion!" Sade shouted after them. "Save the _dream,_ " she called out in a softer voice, feeling tears gather in her eyes as she turned to face her fate standing alone.

Sade Gerrera had always imagined that she would die so well – on her feet, making a stand against the tyranny that had destroyed her life. Well...she now only had one foot left to her and she knew she didn't even have long to stand upon that. Even before this Death Star had darkened the skies above Jedha, she had been dying where she stood. This was truly her last opportunity to die on her feet, facing her enemy without fear. While it was true there was nothing she could do against them any longer, she had at least raised up the next generation who _would._ Her son.

Ah, Jin. Had it been greedy of her – to think of Jin Erso so profoundly as her own child when the boy's own mother loved and missed him so much? Whether it was or was not, Sade could never have helped herself. Even when she'd been mostly whole, her body never would've been able to bear children of her own – not after what the Separatists had done to her on Onderon. And it hadn't been until the moment the Jedi healer had told her she would never bear that she'd realized how desperately she wanted to. Gaila and Leeran's son had filled that emptiness within her, and all she would be able to leave him was this fight – this cause for which she would soon give her very last breath.

Still, as she watched Jin and his companions fly from the crumbling monastery, she couldn't help thinking that maybe this small band would be able to blow the hole through the heart of the Empire that she had never been able to. So, as she watched the ashes of Jedha race toward her on a breaking wave of destruction, Sade only hoped, no matter whom she'd loved, whom she'd hated, whom she'd killed, whom she'd protected and whom she hadn't, that she would prove worthy to stand before all those who had gone before her as an equal – her brother...Leeran...

_I was proud...and unforgiving. Jin, no matter what happens, I hope you know I was proud and happy to be your mother._

XxX

Beni was not unfamiliar with the nightmares of life you wished you could wake up from.

Zev dying in the streets...Alini and the baby dying on the birthing couch...Mother wasting away to nothing...losing her brothers through her own decisions...those had all been nightmares. Realizing what fate was in store for Kari and that she'd become complicit in a system that had taken thousands of lives and was preparing to slaughter untold more...those were nightmares, too. And being handed over to a creature who had rifled through every last good and guilty thought in her head until she couldn't tell forward from backward inside her own mind...that was _beyond_ a nightmare. Beni knew from the nightmares the waking world could show, but what she saw upon stumbling out of the partisan hideout...she didn't see how it could be _anything_ other than the realm of pure nightmare – a horror that could be woken from if she only tried hard enough.

The world was vanishing in a wave of dust and debris, a wave that was rolling ever faster outward from its epicenter. What was happening? Had Bor Gullet screwed with her head so badly she was seeing things that hadn't happened yet? Was this the horror she'd tried to prevent? A vision of it coming to swallow what remained of her ragged mind? Or was it real? All real? The Empire had taken her dignity and her integrity. Had they now come for the only thing she had left? Her insignificant little life?

_Gaila..._ _**Kari** _ _...I'm so sorry. I think I failed you. Forgive me._

"Chirrin! Let's go!" she heard another woman's voice shouting, partly waking her to the reality of her situation. When she saw two vaguely familiar-looking women running _toward_ the maelstrom of debris, she couldn't quite make herself follow them. After all, what was the point? There was no escaping that.

But then two more people crashed past her, one of them turning to shout, "Come on!" at her, and Beni was fairly certain she knew this woman's face. Whether it was from two minutes ago or twenty years, she couldn't say, but she ultimately wound up reasoning with herself, if she was about to go mad or die anyway, where was the harm in attempting to save herself? Stumbling the first several steps, she finally managed to make herself follow after the fleeing group, toward a U-wing that was making windfall not far from the outer reaches of the debris cloud.

Cassia was at least relieved she didn't have to drag the pilot along, because she honestly wasn't sure she'd have been able to. It was all she could do to yank Jin along with her with the ever-growing haze filling her brain. Her injured leg protested the rough treatment, burning with every pull of muscle as she ran. Jin didn't notice the first time she stumbled, but when she tripped over her own feet a second time, Jin helped her regain her balance with a worried look in his eyes.

"Are you- all right?"

"Not now! _Not now!_ We need to go!" she snapped out. She was no longer certain who was leading who when she threw herself the last few feet onto the U-wing. With Chirrin and Beiz already onboard and Jin helping Beni to struggle on, she dragged herself up to the pilot's seat while shouting at her co-pilot, "Let's get out of here! Get us out of here! Punch it!"

"I'm not very optimistic about our odds," K-2 warned her.

"Not now, K!" she ground out as they peeled away from the oncoming wave of destruction. She was aware it would take a miracle to outrun it, but she'd done with less before. She wasn't about to lie down and die now.

Back in the crew compartment, Chirrin was sitting with a look of disbelieving consternation on her face while Beiz looked back at the oncoming storm with abject _rage_ blazing in her eyes. Neither Jin nor Beni had fully woken to the world around them yet, but they did seem to be aware of the nightmare that pursued them. Their miracle was just a few heartbeats away. They were so close to surviving.

" _COME ON!_ " Cassia shouted, urging the ship onward through the encroaching destruction, fighting both her own body and the laws of physics that demanded they stay and die.

"Cassia, your heart rate is well above normal, even accounting for your typical fear responses," K-2 noted in a tone only a few shades outside of her normally unconcerned one.

"Punch it!" Cassia snarled at the droid, ignoring her worry. She could die later. Not here. _Not like this!_

"I haven't completed my calculations," the droid advised in a more neutral tone, taking her meaning.

"I'll make them for you," Cassia hissed as she stretched out her hand to engage the hyperdrive, sending them hurtling into the white oblivion of hyperspace just as the jaws of annihilation were closing around the ship.

XxX

"Oh, it's _beautiful_ ," Orsina Krennic couldn't quite help commenting as they watched the destruction of the Holy City from high above.

The annihilation of the city itself had been over all in an instant. Humane, no doubt, with the laser frequency acting faster than the nerve conduction velocity of pain signals to the brain. The citizens of Jedha had been blinked out of existence before they could even feel the pain of their demise. The encroaching destruction of the surrounding area had been a sight to behold, though, with land and animal and plant all swallowed up as they were pulled into the fury of the Death Star's down blast.

Orsina knew she would be curious to have the moon's ecosystem studied a few months out, to see how it would cope with destruction on such a massive scale. Perhaps Jedha would recover, or perhaps the wound in her crust would be too much to bear and the ancient moon would simply collapse in upon itself, drifting apart like dust on the winds that had once blown through her canyons. But the director's scientific curiosity would have to wait to be satiated, because just then she found her ears picking up a statement she thought she'd never hear.

"I believe I owe you an apology, Director Krennic," Tarkin announced with a small, curt nod. "Your work exceeds all expectations."

For a moment, all the director could manage to do was stare at the governor in amazed silence. When she finally managed to speak again, it was in a voice heavy with the wonder of the cataclysmic event she'd just set in motion. "You'll tell the Empress as much?"

"I will tell her that her patience with your misadventures has been rewarded with a weapon that will bring a swift end to the Rebellion," she announced as if giving some grand speech. Was this really happening? Was even Wilha Tarkin forced to acknowledge the magnitude of her achievements as they roiled to towering heights beneath their feet?

"And that there was only an _inkling_ of its destructive potential," she said, feeling exhilaration course through her veins as she looked around at the expressions of the deck officers, controllers, and technicians. Many were just as thrilled as she, while some were still too shocked for any other kind of reaction. Some actually looked horrified, and she made a note to have those particular personnel files pulled for inspection, but in that moment, it seemed to her that _nothing_ could diminish this triumph.

But then the vibro-axe fell.

"I will tell her that _I_ will be taking over control of the weapon I first spoke of years ago, effective immediately," Tarkin continued, her cool expression never faltering for an instant.

Orsina felt her spine stiffen in rage as she looked back at the governor. So _this_ was it. _This_ was why the woman had so easily permitted the test. Blame for failure could've easily been shoved onto Orsina herself, while success – success could be swooped in upon and snapped up like prey clutched in a draigon's talons. There was _no way_ she was going to stand for this!

"We stand here amidst _my achievement!_ " she snarled. " _Not yours!_ "

"I'm afraid the recent security breaches have laid bare your inadequacies as a military director," Tarkin said matter-of-factly.

Orsina shook her head, offering the governor a slanted sneer. "The breaches have been filled. Jedha has been silenced."

"You think this pilot acted alone?" Tarkin asked pointedly, her voice cutting as she put the implied accusation directly to Orsina's face. "She was dispatched from the installation on _Eadu._ Gaila Erso's facility."

Orsina had to resist the urge to start hyperventilating in rage at that. Gaila was _completely_ under her control. She had been silenced years ago. To suggest that a betrayal of this scope was even _possible,_ that it could it happen right under Orsina's nose, was both insult and injury. There was simply _no way._ Gaila was not the traitor. It _had_ to be one of the other scientists.

"We'll see about this," she hissed at her rival before stalking off the bridge. She would head straight back to Eadu and, not only prove Tarkin's accusation wrong, but present the head of the _true_ traitor to the Empress on a silver platter.

Yes. Victory was still within her grasp. She only needed to tie up a few loose ends.

XxX

Kari almost didn't waste the time it took to sneak out of the personnel archive. She'd been half tempted to just storm out the doors and confront her mother with what she knew, but she also knew dealing with the guard would keep her from seeing her mother. So she made the effort, heading down to the lower levels of the installation from there.

She wasn't technically permitted in the Section 2 areas of the facility, but most of the personnel were familiar enough with her that they didn't have anything to say about it as she passed them by, especially since she was only heading toward a conference room, rather than the testing floors.

The windows of the conference room were composed of plexiglass that could be made opaque at the flip of a switch, but they were not opaqued today. Gaila Erso and her scientists were in full view for whatever discussion they were having. When her mother first caught sight of her over the heads of one of the younger scientists, her first expression was one of displeasure, but then she really seemed to _see_ the look on Kari's face. All at once, that expression turned to a look of resignation. So she _knew_ about this!

Nodding to excuse herself from the other men and women in the room, Gaila rose from the conference table and exited the meeting room, her face the very picture of composed acceptance. She made sure to shift the glass on the way out.

"Did you know?" she asked as her eyes fell to the floor, unable to hold her mother's gaze.

"You will have to be more specific, O'kari," her mother said softly.

"Don't give me that, _Mother!_ " she snarled, her gaze snapping back up to Gaila Erso's face. "You _knew!_ You _knew_ where Beni really was."

Gaila didn't bother to ask how she'd found out. Her mother knew just how resourceful she was. Instead, Gaila sighed, reaching forward to take her by the shoulders. "Kari, I know you think you understand everything, but there is _so much more_ involved in all this than you can know. Beni went to Jedha because she _had_ to. She could no longer serve the Empire when she understood what it truly was."

"What...it... _you?_ " she whispered in horror as she threw off her mother's hands, slowly backing away from her. "It was _you?_ You're the one who convinced her to turn traitor? Mama, how- how _could you?_ "

Gaila swallowed painfully as she looked at her, not daring to take any more than a single step toward her for fear of sending her fleeing. "It's not that simple, my beloved."

"She's only going to get herself killed! The rebels are animals! They'll just kill her! How could you send her off to _die_ like that?"

"It isn't like that, Kari. You could never...what's about to happen-"

" _No!_ I don't want to hear it!" she shouted, suddenly having no desire to hear what her mother said, maybe never to hear _anything_ she said ever again. Shaking her head, she moved further back.

"Kari, _please._ What have I taught you? Think for a moment. Use your head. You _know_...don't you? You _know_ what they really are."

" _I don't care!_ " she shouted. "I don't care what you've taught me, because I guess you've been trying to teach me it's okay to betray people...people who _saved your life,_ " she argued, feeling tears begin to burn at her eyes.

"Kari, look at me," her mother said firmly, and much as she didn't want to, she couldn't quite help obeying that tone. When she looked up at her mother again, it was to see old pain in her eyes. "I want you to be honest with me. How much do you actually _know_ about the events your 'aunt' has described to you?"

Well...she knew she'd only ever really heard the story from Orsina. Gaila had never talked about it, but Kari had always assumed it was because the event was too painful for her mother to talk about.

"I...it's just...how can I... _no!_ " she snapped again as she began to storm away. "I won't hear this! I'm going to get her back!"

"Get her back? What do you mean?"

"I'll go to Jedha! I'll convince her how _stupid_ this whole thing is and _get my sister back!_ " she snarled before suddenly crashing headlong into a pair of troopers heading around the corner.

"Excuse us, Miss," the first trooper said, bobbing his head in apology.

"No harm done," Gaila's voice cut in before Kari could say anything. Coming up behind her, her mother placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "My daughter was just leaving, but I believe you're a bit off your beat, troopers," she commented, squeezing Kari's shoulder a little tighter, urging her to listen.

"We were just coming to deliver the news, Ma'am. Command said to keep it off of comms unless absolutely necessary," the second trooper reported, briefly snapping to attention before continuing with her message. "Word's come in from Jedha. They say the station's first test was successful."

"Jedha?" Gaila repeated, her only response a slight widening of the eyes. "Do you mean...the entire moon is-"

"No, Ma'am. They're saying this was just a small test of the station's ability. It's only the Holy City that's been destroyed."

Gaila had had years of practice in schooling her features so that her expression couldn't be read. It didn't matter how fierce the reaction of her heart was on the inside. On the outside, she was implacable.

O'kari had had no such practice.

She didn't hear the fact that the Empire she lived under had callously wiped out an entire population. She didn't hear that the weapon her mother had built had done this. She didn't hear that it was even possible to do such a thing. All she heard in that moment was the _name_ of the city that had been destroyed.

The Holy City.

Jedha.

NiJedha.

Beni was in NiJedha.

If Beni was in NiJedha...and NiJedha had been destroyed...

...then Beni...Beni was...

"Beni..." she exhaled the name on a broken breath. Her friend...her _sister_...

"Kari," her mother started gently, but she didn't want to hear it. Before Gaila could say anything else, Kari had broken away from her, bolting past the stormtroopers and up out of Section 2. She tried to outrun the tears, but she couldn't manage even that. She ran and ran and ran until she was out of breath, her face soaked with tears.

No. No! _No! NO!_ It couldn't be true. Beni couldn't be dead. But...they'd said. And if she couldn't believe them, who could she believe? Not her mother. And Beni...Beni would never be able to tell her _why!_

By the time Kari actually looked up to take stock of where she was, she found she'd run to Beni's room, thrown herself on the pilot's bed. With Beni's scent surrounding her and her face buried in her pillow, she _screamed_ Beni's name out loud.

She cried and screamed until she had no voice to do either, clinging to the pillow and blankets until her muscles ached. She wept until she'd completely exhausted herself and _still_ it wasn't enough. It would _never_ be enough because no matter how much she screamed or cried, Beni would still be dead. There was nothing she could do to change it. So, with no more tears left in her but an inexhaustible amount of grief, Kari finally curled up on the small bed and slept.

XxX

General Vidahlia Draven would be the first to admit that she had great faith in Cassia Andor's abilities as an agent. Cassia had brought through many victories and successes where several others would have failed. However, she did have to also admit to finding herself more than a little worried when the controller on duty at the communications array waved her over to her console with a distraught look on her face. The older soldier, Tenzia Weems, wiped a sheen of sweat from her forehead before beginning to read from her latest missive.

"A coded mesage from Captain Andor, Sir. Weapon confirmed. Jedha destroyed. Mission target located on Eadu. Please advise."

"Destroyed?" the general repeated in mild shock. This wasn't supposed to be real. There wasn't supposed to be any such thing as a _planet_ killer. Surely...surely it was just the drunken ravings of a disgruntled former Imperial. The real point here had been to get a bead on Gaila Erso and to quietly take out the leading mind in Imperial weapons' development. But...if this thing was real...then the only real hope they had against it was the mind that had constructed it. If the weapon already existed, there was little point in killing Gaila Erso to _stop_ her building it. A new mission had to be improvised.

"Tell her I am authorizing a new mission. Tell her to proceed with haste to Eadu, but to be prepared to extract Gaila Erso. If infiltration conditions are not ideal, we are prepared to launch divertive tactics at her request. Gaila Erso is of more use to us alive than she is dead. We must know everything she does as soon as may be arranged."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now the real diverging begins.


	5. On the Surface

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Rebels may or may not have consumed me body, mind, and soul this past month. It didn't take all that much work to figure out how to incorporate our dear Ghost crew into this little fic. Hopefully, it's still enjoyable, though there might be some spoilers present if you haven't seen Rebels yet.

On some level, Jin was aware that he'd just witnessed the destruction of an entire city. A rational part of his mind understood the magnitude of the tragedy, but the more immediate part of his brain was still focused on remembering the words of his mother, only partly listening to what was going on around him.

"Ambeiza...tell me," Chirrin called out to her partner across the U-wing's cabin. Beiz had turned away from her, as if she couldn't bear to see something in Chirrin's expression. "All of it? The whole city? _Tell_ me."

"All of it," Beiz finally ground out, her shoulders bristling as she turned back to Chirrin. Her expression was still mostly anger, but Jin thought he could see a thread of tenderness running through it as she moved toward her companion. He couldn't quite help but watch as she threaded her fingers together with Chirrin's, gripping her hand firmly and raising it to her forehead. Chirrin reciprocated, moving her own forehead a little closer to their joined hands.

"Understood," Cassia's voice suddenly wound its way into Jin's ear, her next words leaving more of an impact on his addled mind. "Set course for Eadu," she told K-2.

"Setting course for Eadu," the droid complied, but while she set to work, she continued speaking. "Cassia, that heart rate's only getting worse. You really ought to-"

"I'm taking care of it," Cassia snapped mildly as she pulled back from the communications array she'd been working at. "Just get us there."

"Eadu?" Jin pressed, moving to grab the rebel spy by the wrist before she could move to a separate panel. "Is that where my mother is?"

Cassia regarded him strangely for a long moment, blinking several times before nodding. "I think so."

"So you're- Gaila's son?" a new voice entered Jin's awareness. When he turned to seek out the source, he found himself looking at the last new member of the group – the woman in the Imperial flight suit.

"You know her?" Jin asked, moving a few steps from Cassia.

The woman nodded, sitting up a little straighter. "I'm, uh- Beni. The pilot?"

" _You_ brought the message?" he clarified, feeling a new kind of respect for this Beni. She didn't look like much, but if _she_ had been the Imperial to surrender herself to Sade and had come out alive on the other side, there was plainly more to her than surface levels might suggest.

"Yes," Beni returned, her expression dimming as she drew back into herself. "Your mother- she said I could get right by myself. She said I could make it right, if I was brave enough...to listen to what was in my heart...I could _do_ something about it," she said, gaze becoming unfocused for a moment, but then she looked around at all of them and swallowed heavily, leaning back against the wall of the ship. "Guess it was too late."

Jin shook his head. "It _wasn't_ too late," he said, his voice fierce with resolve.

"Seems pretty late to me," Beiz said with a look of bitter cynicism.

"No! We can beat the people who did this," Jin started to insist, looking to each of them in turn before settling his gaze on Cassia, who had moved to the medical array on the far side of the bay. She'd been attempting to synthesize something, but refocused her attention on Jin when he turned back to her. "My mother's message, I've seen it. They call it the Death Star, but they have no idea there's a way to defeat it. You're _wrong_ about my mother," he said, knowing what opinion Alliance Intelligence had had of his mother and her work – what opinion _he'd_ had not all that long ago.

"She _did_ build it," Cassia tried to argue, something in her voice and eyes trembling, no doubt at the memory of the complete devastation they'd just witnessed.

"Because she knew they'd do it without her. My mother made a choice. She sacrificed herself for the Rebellion. She's rigged a trap inside it," he tried to explain, to make Cassia _understand_. Briefly, he turned his attention back to Beni. "That's _why_ she sent you to bring that message."

"Where is it?" Cassia pressed him, drawing his gaze back to her. "Where is the message?"

"It- it was a hologram," he mumbled helplessly.

"You _have_ that message. _Right?_ " she pleaded with him in desperation. She was sweating now, shaking. Was she really that upset?

"Everything happened so fast..." he started, wishing he had a better apology than that.

"Did _you_ see it?" she near-snapped at Beni, who only shook her head in remorse. Cassia exhaled a frustrated breath, trying to stop her hands from shaking by curling them into fists.

"You don't believe me," Jin said quietly, knowing it wasn't something he needed to ask as he felt a small pang of disappointment in his gut. They hadn't known each other very long, it was true, but he'd hoped he might've earned a _little_ of her trust at this point.

Cassia sighed again, running a hand through her scruffy hair before offering Jin an exhausted, apologetic look. "I'm not the one you gotta convince."

"I believe him," Chirrin suddenly put in, pulling the full group into the debate.

Cassia offered the Guardian a caustic look, matched only by the acid in her tone. "That's good to know."

"Cassia-" K-2 attempted to intervene again.

" _Not now, K!_ " she snarled, shaking her head to clear it.

"What kind of trap?" Beiz spoke up, pulling Jin's focus back to the two Guardians. "You say your mother made a trap."

"The reactor," Jin started in, relieved to have a chance to try and make himself understood. "She's placed a weakness there. She's been hiding it for years. She said if you can blow the reactor, the module, the whole system goes down. You need to send word to the Alliance," he said to Cassia.

"I've done that," she said with a pained shrug.

"Then they have to know there's a way to destroy this thing. They have to go to Scarif to get the plans," he told her.

Cassia laughed at this, her voice close to hysterical as she wrapped her arms around herself. She was _really_ shaking now. "I can't risk sending that. We're in the heart of Imperial territory."

"Then we'll find her and bring her back," Jin declared firmly, feeling like he was truly behind this mission for the first time since it had been explained to him back on Yavin IV, "and she can tell them herself."

At this, Cassia gave a pained laugh. "What is it you think we've been trying to do this entire time? It hasn't exactly been-"

Whatever she'd been about to say was cut off suddenly when her body went rigid and she gave a strangled cry, eyes rolling back in her head for a single horrifying moment. Then every muscle in her body went lax and she crumpled before them.

"Cassia!" Jin cried out in worry, moving in to catch her before she could hit the floor. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Within moments, K-2 had swept back into the passenger bay and plucked the rebel agent from his grip, laying her out flat on the floor of the ship. "I _knew_ something was wrong. She wouldn't listen. I will need to run a diagnostic-"

"No need," Beiz interrupted. "We know what happened. She was hit with Trigoran neurotox."

"Kriffing- kriff," Jin started to growl, quickly moving to take over the task Cassia had been attempting earlier. Stubborn idiot might've _said_ something!

_But then, you didn't exactly give her a_ _**chance** _ _to._

"Hell," he muttered to himself as he worked to complete the synthesis. How long did they have? Half an hour? Five minutes? Didn't matter. He just had to get it ready.

"Are you absolutely certain you know the proper procedure for this synthesis?" K-2 demanded of him.

"I could do it in my sleep," Jin snapped back as he readied the injection. "Sade had a- bit of a penchant for using that neurotox in interrogation."

"Then I will trust you, Jin Erso," the droid said in a modulated tone that may or may not have been bitter. "If I had the capacity to hope, I would _hope_ that you don't take this opportunity to betray her. That may just earn you a one way trip out the airlock."

Jin raised an eyebrow at the droid as he turned back to them. As far as K-2isms went, it was almost endearing – in so much as one could find being spaced endearing. Shaking the thought off, he brought the newly synthesized biochem over to Cassia, injecting the compound into her neck. She gave a small grunt of pain as her eyes burst open, but then she slumped back to the deck, her breathing coming in sharp, heavy bursts.

"What- what's happening?" she asked in mild confusion.

"You neglected to mention you were dying where you stood just a few minutes ago," Jin explained with a scolding smile.

"I...kriffing...hells," the rebel agent ground out, eyes closing and opening several times before she lifted a hand to her face, covering her eyes to maybe stop the movement.

"Do you remember where he got you? I'd wager you've got a few scratch marks that need patching," he said.

Cassia gave a small nod, waving her free hand vaguely in the direction of her left leg. Jin quickly spotted the growing stains of red on her pant leg. Cassia gave a bitter laugh when Jin couldn't seem to formulate a proper response. "Nerfherding sleemo wanted a piece of human cunt if any sentient ever did."

This was met with a small snort of laughter from one of the Guardians, though Jin didn't turn quite fast enough to see which one. They'd moved back to give as much privacy as the U-wing's close quarters afforded when the situation proved to be non-lethal. Beni had stood when Cassia had collapsed, but hadn't moved any closer. Assured of the rebel spy's life, K-2 moved back to the ship's controls, leaving just Jin and Cassia there on the deck in between the cockpit and the carrier compartment.

"Well...suppose you can comfort yourself with the notion that he's probably dead," Jin found himself trying to joke, not certain if he should be more appalled with himself over the timing of such a joke or the fact that he was attempting to joke with Cassia at all.

The look on her face was pained when her hand slid down from her eyes, but she did still offer up a small laugh. "You...you're not wrong," she muttered. "Should've...known better...been prepared..."

"There are only so many problems you can be expected to foresee," Jin pointed out, recalling it as something his father had said a long time ago. "Not to- give you the wrong impression here, but...we're going to need to get a patch on that," he told her. "Is that going to be a problem?"

For a moment, the rebel agent lay still on the deck, just staring up at the U-wing's ceiling. Shaking her head, she mumbled in a strange voice, "It's not. It's _really_ not...but _I_ should do it."

"You _can't,_ Cassia," K-2 scolded her. "If you apply the bacta patch improperly, the wound will become infected. There's no sense in attempting to maintain some foolish notion of organic _propriety_ when your health is at stake."

"Such a nursemaid, K," Cassia said with a woozy chuckle.

"Well, if organics _insist_ on such nonsensical behavior, they could all _do_ with nursemaids," the droid snipped. Jin didn't doubt she would handle the situation herself if her mechanical limbs weren't so obviously lacking the required delicate touch.

Rather than respond, Cassia lifted her hands in an attempt to undo her belt. When she was lying completely still, she seemed not too bad off, but when she attempted to set about this one task, her hands started to shake badly, unable even to grip the simple piece of leather. Being gentle, Jin rested his hands on top of hers, easing them into stillness.

"Hey...hey..." he pressed in what he could only hope was a comforting voice, "It's all right. I'll help you."

For a long moment, Cassia lay still, looking up at him with an expression on her face he couldn't seem to identify. There was confusion, surprise, maybe anger, something like sadness. Whatever it was, he didn't doubt the neurotox still in her system was partly responsible for the rawness of the expression. Finally letting her trembling hands fall from his grasp to rest at her sides, she nodded, closing her eyes and lying back in a way that suggested she was accepting something inevitable. And that, of all things, didn't sit right with Jin Erso.

 _"Assume nothing,"_ Sade had once admonished him after a failed first kiss, the rare piece of advice she'd offered that had nothing to do with war or fighting. _"Any woman you come to know in your life will have had more taken from her than you can ever know. It is_ _ **your**_ _responsibility to ensure that you take nothing more."_

"Cassia?" he tried again, laying a hand on her arm. She opened a single eye to look up at him. "I'm not going to do this unless you tell me it's all right."

Again, the look of confusion. The woman tilted her head slightly to the side, but the movement caused her to shake again. When she finally had it under control, she gave another nod. "It's all right. Just be quick about it or we'll be here all night."

Managing a small chuckle at her attempt at levity, Jin nodded as he reached for her belt, trying to ignore the connotations of his actions as he undid the stiff material. Being as gentle as he knew how to be, he rolled the fabric of her pants down over her hips, keeping his focus on the thigh that was injured as it came into view.

Her blood had somewhat congealed over the claw marks in her skin, but there were still a few places along the injury sites that lazily oozed blood. Grabbing an antiseptic pad from among the med supplies he'd hastily carried over with him, Jin began to clean the wound, being careful of where his hand was at all times.

Cleaning Cassia's wounds and applying bacta patches wasn't as difficult as all that with a mostly clear head on his shoulders, but Cassia would've likely torn the patches had she attempted it herself, wasting precious medical supplies in the process. But once the wound was fully dressed and Jin was making a move to redress the rebel spy, she reached a hand down to stop him, keeping her hand overtop of his as he looked up at her.

There was less of confusion in her bleary gaze now and more of sadness, of regret. When her fingers suddenly dug into his hand, it belied the softness of her next words.

"I'm...sorry," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Sorry?" he repeated in confusion, shifting his hand to grip hers. "What do you mean? What do you have to be sorry for?"

"Everything," she choked out, squeezing his hand as the tears began to fall. " _Everything._ "

"Cassia...I don't understand."

"Sorry...sorry," she cried softly, no more cogent than before. "For...forgive- me."

Then, quite suddenly, Cassia had fallen unconscious, her grip slackening in Jin's. Utterly confused by the entire exchange and with nothing more to do, he finished putting the rebel agent's clothes to rights and settled her head in his lap, sitting there on the deck, just holding her.

Sorry? Forgive? What did she want his forgiveness for? Dragging him into all this? If not for that, he'd likely be rotting in a shallow grave on Wobani by now. Because of her, he'd been able to hear his mother's message, learn the _truth_ of her. If anything, he should be _thanking_ Cassia Andor.

But then his thoughts moved back to Sade, of how they'd wandered over briefly just now, and back to some of the things she'd said barely more than a few hours ago.

_"Did they- send you...did you come here...to kill_ _**me?** _ _"_

That was it. That was the answer. Cassia's strange behavior, coupled with Sade's earlier suspicions – this had never been an extraction. It was an assassination. The Alliance had never wanted his mother. They'd only wanted the creator of the Death Star silenced.

_And who could blame them, after what it did to Jedha? If it can do that to a whole_ _**world** _ _..._

No. He couldn't blame them for the military tactic of wanting to destroy such an unstoppable enemy, couldn't blame Cassia for the orders she'd been given, not when she was so clearly torn up over them. Only _he_ knew the truth about his mother, it seemed. The Alliance ought to be giving her a kriffing _medal_. Well, he would just have to use his knowledge to stay Cassia's shot, to convince her that his mother was of more use to the Alliance alive than she was dead. So when Cassia finally regained consciousness, he was ready.

"How long was I out?" she asked, still shaking mildly as she blinked up at Jin.

"Five standard by the chrono," K-2 reported. Jin balked slightly at this. Had he really sat in one spot like that for five _hours?_

Cassia gave a small groan as she sat up. "We'll be coming up on Eadu before too long. I'll need to-"

"Permit me my interruption," K-2 started before she could do anything more, "but you seem to be laboring under the delusion that I'm going to permit you to pilot _anything_ in your current condition."

"I'm fine, K," she tried to argue as she climbed to her feet, still a little unsteady, but waving away Jin's help. "It will take both of us to get through that storm I was tracking."

"You know, I'm uncertain if it's simply Rebel conditioning to ignore Imperial solutions offhand, but we _do_ in fact have another pilot aboard this ship," K-2 pointed out without looking up from the console.

Nearly as one, all other functioning eyes aboard the U-wing turned to Beni, who hadn't moved from her spot once during the flight. She looked up at them all in confusion for a moment before pointing slowly up at herself.

"Me?"

XxX

_Beni...please don't give up._

Her dead sister's voice had haunted her so often these last few weeks, but at no time more intensely than it did in the moment she slid into the pilot's chair of the rebel ship. There had been some debate, even some protest on her part, but those protests had disappeared for her the moment she was at the controls.

_Don't forget who you are._

She had. For such a long time, she had. All she had done since leaving Jedha was survive, and that had led to an entire city being vaporized. It could lead to entire _worlds_ being vaporized. She'd never been a very brave person in her life, but for some reason, the thought of returning to Eadu didn't fill her with dread as it had just a few hours ago. To handle the controls of a ship again, even an unfamiliar one, caused her to remember one simple fact.

She could fly.

_Please...little sister...remember your dream._

Entering Eadu's atmosphere beyond the scope of the installation's landing tracking, Beni carefully guided the U-wing through one of the worst storms she'd ever seen on the planet's surface. While she wasn't familiar with this backdoor approach, she was familiar enough with Eadu's typical air currents and geologic formations. She could figure it out.

"Twenty degrees to the right," K-2 advised, helping her to avoid an unseen outcropping of rock. But then he gave her an instruction she had _no_ intention of following.

"Ten degrees up."

_Don't let your wings blacken and wither away._

"No," she countermanded calmly as she continued to guide the ship down. "Lower."

"Are you sure this is the way?" K-2 pressed her.

"They have landing tracking and patrol squadrons," she explained. "We've got to stay in the canyon. We're keeping it low."

"On the right!" Cassia suddenly called out, breaking them out of their debate. Beni quickly yanked the craft away from the oncoming obstacle.

"There's a twenty-six percent chance of failure," K-2 reported, clearly regretting her decision to turn the pilot's chair over to Beni as the ship was buffeted from all sides.

"How much further?" Cassia demanded of her.

"Not sure," Beni ground out, keeping her focus on the terrain ahead of her. "I've never actually come in this way before. We _are_ close. I _know_ that," she insisted.

"Well, now there's a thirty-five percent chance of failure," K-2 put in, and Beni had to wonder if she wasn't doing that on purpose.

"I _don't_ want to know. Thank you," she snapped out firmly, narrowly missing colliding with a fresh outcropping.

"I understand."

She could half-sense Cassia wanting to wrest control of the ship from her every time she avoided another obstacle or rode out a fresh gust of wind, but the spy managed to restrain herself. Beni just kept pressing, moving forward until she suddenly spotted the familiar outlines of the valley where the installation was tucked. Almost immediately, she began to dive.

"We're going down now!" she called into the back.

"But the wind!" K-2 tried to protest.

"If we keep going, we'll be right over the shuttle depot. We're _going in now!_ " she snarled, attempting to slip in underneath the latest gale. But apparently even she could get too cocky. Unable to hold the controls against the last gust of wind, the U-wing was wrenched from her control, its right foil array driven sharply into the canyon wall and throwing the whole craft into a sickening roll.

"Hold on tight!" Cassia shouted to the others as she grabbed hold of the back of Beni's chair. "We're coming down hard!"

Beni felt the painful ricochet of each crash against the canyon wall as if it were her own skin being torn into. The U-wing was far out of her control by now, but she could at least keep them from breaking up entirely. So, rolling with each violent lurch of the ship upon the merciless wind, she managed to bring the ship down in one piece, even though it was completely silent and unresponsive by the time it jarred to a stop on the canyon floor.

XxX

"Uh-oh. Looks like somebody got stuck on sitting duty again."

Captain Alixr Kallus looked up at the sound of her partner's voice. The Lasat was offering her a small, secretive grin as she walked into the makeshift playroom, where Alixr and little Jaina Syndulla were engaged in a game of Rebels and Imperials – or at least that was what the rest of the base had taken to calling the game. Jaina was really just throwing balls at whoever her wrangler of the day was.

"Sorry," Alixr apologized as she rose from her latest stint of playing dead. "You never responded. I didn't know if you'd got my message that I'd be late for lunch."

"What happened to Rei?" Ziba asked her, the smile becoming slightly exasperated.

"She had an emergency with Zeta Squadron. I volunteered to step in. After all, I'm more or less off duty today," she said, easily catching Jaina's latest volley.

"More or less," the Lasat warrior returned, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Don't give me that look, Gereziba."

"What look's that?"

"That look you get whenever you think I'm being taken advantage of. You wear it entirely too often. Rei's had legitimate problems getting Zeta Squadron off the ground and I don't begrudge her a second of overtime. Besides...I swore to Kana her daughter would be looked after," she said, her expression going distant as she turned to glance at the little girl who glared back at her with Kana Jarrus' defiant crystal blue eyes. "It would be...terribly hypocritical of me to refuse a few babysitting shifts here and there."

"Auntie!" Jaina called out shrilly as she threw another ball. " _Down!_ "

This time, Alix allowed the ball to hit her, making a show of groaning in pain as she went down. "Oh, no! She got me! Curse you, rebel scum!"

Ziba laughed as she looked down at her, giving her shoulder a gentle tap with her prehensile foot. "Thought you didn't like playing the big, bad Imperial. Too many bad memories."

Alix opened up a single eye, grinning as she looked up at her lover. "Whatever my princess commands, I shall gladly do. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm dead."

"Karabast. Don't even joke about that," Ziba snarled quietly.

"Language, Gereziba," she scolded right back. Ziba sighed.

"What about Mira? Where's little Tano got to?" the Lasat asked her, referring to Rei's little girl.

Eyes still shut, Alix vaguely shifted her head toward the far corner of the room, where the tiny half-Togruta was curled up under her thin blanket. "Sound asleep. How Heron gets them both to nap at the same time, I'll never understand."

"Y'know, you're wastin' your talents...not bein' a mother yourself," she suddenly heard Ziba saying. Feeling her heart do a summersault in her chest, she had to employ every ounce of her own willpower not to allow her eyes to shoot open.

"Jaina and Mira are enough of a handful as it is," she said, trying to sound casual as she kept her eyes shut, "but if you're applying for the job...then..."

"Maybe I am, but that's not why I'm here," Ziba said, the sound of her voice moving closer indicating to the former Imperial agent that she was crouching beside her. "Stuff's been goin' on with Fracture. I know Draven's been tryin' to keep you outta the loop, but I thought you'd wanna know. Andor's been comin' back with some pretty crazy reports."

"Crazy how?" Alix asked as she sat up, the game instantly forgotten. Draven did indeed prefer to keep her out of touch with the best Fulcrum agent she'd ever trained, but that didn't mean she was very good at following that directive. She was, after all, Cassia's mentor.

"Like...Geonosis level crazy. You'd better go see what's happenin'," Ziba said before going to retrieve Jaina from her hiding place. At first, Jaina looked angry, but she was quickly squealing in delight once Ziba started lifting her up high, flying her through the air like a little X-wing.

"Auntie Z! Auntie Z!" the youngling cheered, spreading her arms and legs as far out as they'd go.

Alix jumped up, pressing a quick kiss to the Lasat's cheek before heading out of the room, pleased to hear both Ziba and Jaina laughing.

"Yeah, you're gonna be a great pilot someday, just like your old dad."

If Jaina said anything in response, Alix didn't hear it. She was off and away into the network of corridors that ran throughout the Massassi temple. By design, the quarters of the Intelligence network were further off the beaten path, but she knew the way well. When she arrived, it was to find Draven pressing the private on duty, Tenzia, for some kind of contact.

"Try them again," the older woman pressed anxiously, hand resting on the private's listening station.

"I _am,_ Sir. We...the signal's gone dead," Tenzia insisted, her own voice thick with worry.

For a moment, she saw Draven look around at all who were present, worried, but then her expression hardened into resolve and she began to give an order. "Squadron-"

"General!" Alix called out before the woman could do something she might regret. The general's head snapped in her direction, clearly less than pleased to see her.

"Captain Kallus," she acknowledged stiffly.

"Is that Captain Andor you're tracking?"

"Not that it's any of your concern just now, but yes, it is."

"Were you going to give an order to interfere with her assignment?"

"Perhaps. This is a bit of an emergency situation, Captain. Is it your intention to intervene with my command? There is little time remaining to us."

"Never to interfere, General. Merely to request that you give Cassia a chance to do her job. I understand your experience with spy work is limited, so I will simply tell you that your Fulcrum agent will give you her best work if she is permitted to operate uninhibited. She will find some way of getting back to you when she needs to," Alix explained succinctly.

"And if she doesn't?" Draven pressed. "If she is dead or worse?"

"Then you may make that assumption _after_ the requisite full cycle and act accordingly. Captain Andor could withstand interrogation for at least that long, could she not?"

"Indeed," the general grated, glaring at her.

"So _let her do her work_ ," the former Fulcrum agent insisted in a sort of controlled seethe. "I can almost guarantee you will have better results."

Draven surveyed her for several long moments before finally growling and nodding. "I will defer to your expertise in this area, _Agent_ , but if this goes badly, I will be holding you _personally_ accountable for it," she declared, her small dig at Alix's former positions as a Fulcrum agent _and_ an Imperial agent not in any way subtle.

"Fair enough," she returned calmly, despite the sudden roil of anger and guilt in her gut.

"Keep the line open for further reports, Private Weems."

"Yessir."

_All right, Cassia, I've bought you the time you need. Now you just need to come through._

XxX

"How about now? Check stabilizers," Cassia heard Beni walking K-2 through another attempt at an emergency startup as she climbed back aboard her downed U-wing. For all the Imperial pilot had crashed them, she'd at least managed to bring the ship down in one piece, even though it would plainly never fly again. They could do without the ship just now. What they really needed was comms. She'd be able to case out the installation for an infiltration run, but she wouldn't be able to call in outside help if it were needed.

Well, may as well get started on what she _could_ accomplish. That was Captain Kallus' first rule.

_"You need to get as far as you can under your own power. You'd be surprised what all you can accomplish on your own. Once you've done that, look around again. You might just find one more thing you can do."_

"Beni, where's the lab?"

"The research facility?" the pilot asked her, glancing up in confusion.

"Yeah, where is it?" she pressed as she gathered up her gear.

"It's just over that ridge," Beni answered, nodding her head back at the valley mouth she'd been aiming for.

"That's a shuttle depot straight ahead of us? You are sure of that?"

"Yes," she returned in exasperation.

"Then we'll have to hope there's still an Imperial ship left to steal. Here's what we're doing. Hopefully this storm keeps up and keeps us hidden down here. Beni, you're coming with me. We'll go up the ridge and check it out," Cassia explained.

"I'm coming with you," Jin jumped up immediately, beginning to go for some gear of his own.

Cassia eyed him up a moment before nodding. "All right. I was thinking to keep this first look small, but one more set of eyes can't hurt."

At this, Jin glanced back up at her, looking almost...surprised? Like he'd expected her to argue. Not allowing herself time to linger over the gaze, she checked in with K-2.

"Any luck fixing those comms?"

"A few sparks only. Nothing strong enough to even get past the storm. I suppose I have no option but to keep trying," the droid bemoaned.

"That's the idea," Cassia said with a wince and a small nod, letting the other two know to follow her. "Come on. Let's get going."

Cassia led the way out into the storm, decked out in her all-weather gear. Jin and Beni had hardly had time to slip ponchos on before following after her. She led the way at first, moving up the ridge Beni had indicated earlier, but when she began the descent into the valley, the pilot made a grab for her shoulder, pointing to a path leading upward, overlooking the valley.

"No, no, no. We've gotta go up. You can't see much from down there. This way," she insisted, waving them toward the upper path.

Cassia fell into step behind her without question. The way up was far from easy. At one point, the waterlogged soil even fell away beneath the pilot's feet and she had to leap to get clear of it. Coming to a sprawl on the other side of the break, she glanced fearfully back at the other two, clearly struggling to control her panicked breathing. Offering the woman an encouraging smile, Jin easily hopped across the small drop off, helping Beni to her feet.

"Don't worry. We're right behind you."

Giving a perplexed smile of her own, Cassia quickly followed suit. Really, she should have been focusing on the task at hand, preparing to gather information and subject herself to intense Imperial scrutiny. She should've been feeling the pressure of her responsibilities weighing down on her, as she had on every other mission before this one. But for some reason, she felt strangely light. Draven's last minute stay of execution had cast everything before her in a different light. How often had that happened in her line of work? Never, really. She would have to use it – this opportunity to save Gaila Erso rather than murder her. She felt an unexpected spike of excitement when Beni led them to the cover of a few boulders on a ledge that looked out over the valley, the lights of the shuttle depot glowing brightly in the distance. The pilot was already scanning by the time Cassia came up to her and Jin.

Something actually looked to be going on out on the landing platform, what with the bustling activity swarming over it.

"Do you see anything down there?" Cassia pressed as she dug out her quadnocs, passing them to Jin and taking the time to make a display of placing her rifle in the safety configuration so she could look through the scope without fear of discharging a shot.

"That...that's her," Beni murmured in a surprised voice. "Gaila...that's her. In the dark suit," she continued, nodding her two companions' attention down to the figure in question – a tall, impassive woman dressed in the aforementioned dark grey Imperial uniform. She was standing at the head of a group of men and women clad in white biohazard suits.

Before either Cassia or Jin could comment on any of it, the sound of an inbound shuttle hit their ears just in time for them to take cover beneath the boulders. Cassia stole a glance upward to watch the shuttle descend onto the landing platform.

Who could guess what, but it seemed they'd arrived just in time to serve as audience to some act. There was little choice but to wait and see how things played out.

XxX

Kari had no idea how long she spent lying in Beni's bunk, but she was awakened from her troubled half-sleep by the sound of an inbound alert. The base was being informed that the director was on approach so they could array to greet her.

Orsina! Aunt Orsina. That was it. That was who she could count on for the truth. She hadn't fully decided if she was going to turn her mother over to the authorities yet, but her aunt would be able to help her find her answers. She was sure of it.

 _But are you?_ the niggling voice at the back of her mind pressed, whispering through her grief and hurt and anger – the part of her that had to _question_ things. The part of her that her _mother_ had put there. _You're not sure of your aunt's intentions. Are you._

"No more questions," she snarled at herself as she hurried up to the landing platform. No more curiosity, no more sneaking, no more finding her own answers. All she wanted, for once in her life, was a straight answer. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that no one ever _had_ given her that. They had mollified her, fed her stories to satisfy the questions she'd asked. She had allowed it to go on for so long, she wasn't even sure she knew who the people closest to her _were_ anymore – if she had ever known to begin with. Well, she was going to have an answer from Aunt Orsina, and no matter what it was, she was going to believe it. She _had_ to. If she didn't...she honestly wasn't sure what would happen to her.

She was prepared to march straight out onto the platform and confront her aunt, but then she saw what was actually occurring beneath the sheets of rain lashing down on the deck and she froze in shock, only just managing to snap out of it and hide herself before the troopers noticed her, observing the scene in mute horror.

XxX

Orsina half-wanted to snarl at the neutral expression she saw on Gaila's face as she descended from her shuttle. How long had she fallen for that guileless, submissive expression? How many years had she been taken in? Had she? Well, she would soon know for sure. Keeping her own expression from the anger she wanted to express, she offered Gaila an almost maternal smile.

"Excellent news, Gaila. The battle station is complete. You must be very proud," she told her.

"Proud as I can be, Orsina," the scientist said with a small nod, neither smiling nor frowning, simply accepting.

Fighting the urge to snap, Orsina continued to smile. "Gather your engineers. I have an announcement."

She saw something shift in Gaila's expression at this. Nothing overt. It was little more than a blink, but it was enough. She was up to _something_. It didn't take much for her to carry out the director's request. She simply swept a hand along the line up of scientists out on the platform.

"Is that all of them?" she asked, to which Gaila nodded.

"Yes."

"Ladies," the director began without preamble as she walked slowly before the lineup of ruffled scientists, "Gentlmen...one of you betrayed the Empire. _One of you_ has conspired with a pilot to send messages to the Rebellion. And I urge that traitor to step forward," she declared vehemently, jabbing a finger down at the small stretch of deck before her.

During the long moment of silence that followed, her gaze swept up and down the line several times before flicking back to Gaila, who wasn't looking at her. She was looking at her scientists – those under her, the people she thought she had to _protect_. If nothing else would get the fool-headed lying _bitch_ to speak up, that would. Growling under her breath, Orsina finally announced for all to hear, "Very well, I'll consider it a group effort. Ready!" she called to her guard squad, raising a hand to signal them. Her death troopers immediately took aim at the easy lineup of targets. "Aim! And fi-"

"Stop! Stop! _Stop! Orsina,_ _ **STOP!**_ " Gaila cried out desperately as she threw herself in front of the frightened engineers, flinging her arms wide as if to present a larger target. "It was me! It _was_ me. They had nothing to do with it. Spare them," she pleaded, lowering her head penitently before the director, though she kept her eyes lifted to hers.

Sighing, Orsina shook her head as she beckoned Gaila toward her, the rage boiling at the heart of her unfailingly concealed. No. She was _not_ going to make this betrayal easy for her to bear. She had attempted to compromise Orsina's great work, and she was going to _pay_ for it. Besides, the weapon was complete now. What need had she for the engineers? They were just loose ends that needed tying up. The true brilliance of the thing lay within Gaila herself.

The rest were expendable.

So, once Gaila was safe at her side, she seized the woman's arm in a death grip before snapping out a single, harsh, " _Fire!_ "

Gaila didn't turn back to see the troopers fire on her engineers. A simple, profound look of pained guilt passed over her aging face as the horrified screams of her fellows pierced her ears. But Orsina wasn't going to stand for that sort of nobility. Not in the slightest. Once the scientists were all dead, she delivered an enraged _slap_ across Gaila's face, sending her to her knees before the director – _exactly_ where she belonged.

"How do I know the weapon is complete? Let me share with you some details," she mocked as she crouched down beside the beaten woman. "Jedha, Sade Gerrera and her band of fanatics, their holy city, the last reminder of the Jedi... _gone!_ " she hissed in Gaila's face, waiting with relish for the moment when she would look up at her with shock and pain in her eyes.

But no such moment came. When Gaila Erso looked up at Orsina Krennic, it was with all the defiant fire of the most fervent rebel warrior – the look of Leeran Erso, long dead, but still somehow alive in this maddening woman's burning gaze.

"You'll _never win,_ " Gaila declared, not in defiance, but in simple truth. How foolish of her, to believe such a thing. After all, hadn't she herself ensured they couldn't _fail_ to win?

"Now where have I heard _that_ before?" Orsina spat back, delivering a fresh slap to Gaila's cheek before rising smoothly back to her feet. She would understand. Just as soon as she saw the beauty of the battle station in motion, the poetry of each perfect mechanism, she would see how foolish that defiance was. "You will see, Gaila," she finished with a small sneer before turning back to her guards. "Lock her up. We will conduct preliminary interrogations here before we return her to Coruscant for trial."

Gaila didn't resist as the death troopers placed her in binders and began to escort her back into the facility. Orsina couldn't resist the small amount of gloating she allowed herself over this victory.

"I can't imagine what you hoped to gain by all this. You all keep talking about how the Empire will never win, but it _has_ won already. _Nothing_ will stand against the weapon you've built. You've given us the galaxy forever and changed nothing. I'm not sure I understand you, Gaila."

"I have changed more than you will ever understand, Orsina. I can only hope I am there to see it when you come to understand just _how_ powerless you truly are," Gaila explained in a calm voice, offering her the insult of a mere sideways glance.

"Powerless?" Orsina repeated in uncomprehending anger. What did _this_ woman know about power? "You are deluded." She would've continued with the tirade, except she happened to glance to the end of the side corridor they were passing, seeing O'kari standing there looking lost. This. This was the perfect opportunity. If nothing else would hurt Gaila, _this_ would. "I will _show you_ who is powerless."

"Orsina," Gaila began in a warning voice. "I promise you now, if you _touch her_ -"

But the director didn't give her a chance to finish the threat. Ordering her guard to halt, she broke off from the escort to approach the young cadet, who looked up at her with wobbling eyes.

"Or- Orsina?"

"My dear O'kari," she started as she placed her hands on the girl's shoulders, "it saddens me to have to tell you this, but it seems your dear mother is a traitor to our Empire."

Slowly, O'kari closed her eyes, tears sliding down her cheeks as she nodded. When she opened them again, she was looking past Orsina with anger in her eyes. "I didn't want to believe it, but I'm afraid you're right."

"But you would never betray us...would you...my beloved O'kari," she said slowly as she drew her ward's gaze back to her face with a simple guiding hand on her chin.

There was confusion swirling in the girl's eyes as she looked up at her, confusion and fear and doubt. But ultimately her expression settled on anger as she swallowed and shook her head.

"No. Never."

"There's my good girl," Orsina extolled, leaning down to press a kiss to O'kari's forehead. Then, tracing a thumb slowly along her cheek to wipe away the tears, she moved further down and kissed her lips.

This she had done only a handful of times, and so carefully that O'kari had never rejected her. But here in this moment, as she allowed the kiss to lengthen and linger, she could feel the dynamic shifting between them as the girl trembled in her arms. O'kari Erso was aware now, awake and open to the possibilities. Orsina left the invitation open with a tiny, delicate kiss to the girl's neck as she pulled back from her. For a moment, the lost look was back in her eyes, but then it shifted into a small, hopeful smile. Orsina returned it with a reassuring smile of her own.

" _My_ good girl," she near-whispered as she pulled O'kari firmly against her side. "Faithful to the end. Perhaps you could tell me a bit more of what you've witnessed of your mother's doings," she suggested as she began to lead her out of the corridor.

"I...of course," she responded, the small blush that painted her cheeks endearing.

"Kari," Gaila started, speaking for the first time during the whole encounter. "I beg you. If you hear nothing else I say, hear me now. Don't go with her. You will regret it forever."

Again, that torn, lost look, but this time around it was a much quicker shift between that and anger.

"You don't know that," the girl snapped at her mother, not looking at her as Orsina led her past.

"I know that she's _using you_ ," Gaila pleaded with her daughter. "Please...don't let her."

"Using, Gaila?" Orsina asked incredulously. "Hardly. Our O'kari is old enough to make her own choices, I think."

And with that, O'kari was won over. Squaring her shoulders, she shifted to walk proudly at Orsina's side. "Of course I am. Come on- Aunt. I'll give you anything you want."

Oh, how young the girl still was. No child, certainly, but _that_...if only she _knew_. Orsina would still have to remind herself to take this slowly.

"She murdered Beni!" Gaila called after them. "Don't pretend like you don't know that."

At this, O'kari froze, but it wasn't in hesitation this time. When Orsina looked down at her, she could see the rage lodged like a living meteorite in her eyes.

"You murdered her first," the girl hissed, "when you sent her out there to die."

"Enough of this foolishness, Gaila," she snapped with a triumphant sneer. "I won't have you upsetting her anymore. Take her away," she ordered her troopers.

"I can't believe...my _own mother_..." O'kari choked out as they continued to walk to the director's office. Orsina stroked her shoulder reassuringly all the while.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that, but it's done with now. You won't ever have to see her again if you don't want to."

"I just...don't know..." she mumbled, much less certain now she was out from under Gaila's gaze.

"It's all right. Everything's going to be all right now," Orsina continued to chat reassuringly all the way to her office, and when they reached it, she made certain to seal the doors behind them.

XxX

Jin had gone up on the ridge expecting to have to talk Cassia down from shooting his mother. It had instead happened that Cassia was the one talking him down from shooting the woman in white – one of the creatures from his nightmares. Each time the woman had delivered a new blow to his mother's face, Cassia had had to restrain him from taking a shot at her.

"We can't solve this with a blaster," the spy kept repeating in his ear. "If that woman dies now, like this, your mother won't last five minutes. Be _patient._ "

By the time the director had had Gaila Erso escorted into the facility, Cassia had actually had to take his blaster from him. With nothing left to observe, the rebel spy immediately began to hurry them down from the ridge.

"We won't have a lot of time," she was saying, more to herself than to them. "Only a few hours before some sort of security routine settles in. Get in and out."

She was saying more, but Jin wasn't really hearing it. When he finally couldn't take it anymore, he reached out and grabbed Cassia's wrist, preventing her from going any further.

"Jin, what are you doing?" Cassia demanded, trying to pull her arm free. "We have work to do."

"Cassia..." he started slowly, not completely certain where to begin, but knowing he needed to say _something_. "I...I can't _do_ this anymore. I have to know. The Alliance...did they send you...did you come here to kill my mother?"

Cassia really didn't need to _say_ anything. The way she stiffened in Jin's grasp was answer enough. What would _really_ matter would be how she chose to answer next. The truth...or another lie?

The rebel agent stared at him for several drawn out moments, some wide and ugly void opening up in her eyes as she stared. There was no moment of clarity when she finally came to a decision. Just a small and simply uttered, "Yes."

" _What?_ " Beni demanded in horror, glancing back and forth between the pair of them, but neither really noticed her. Their attention was only for each other in that moment.

"Why?" Jin whispered after a time, but he may as well have shouted the word for the way it seemed to strike Cassia's ears, making her wince as if Jin had struck her.

"I had orders," she returned, making no effort to break Jin's hold on her.

"No, that- that's not what I meant. I know _why,_ " he said, and he _did_ , even if the mere thought made his stomach turn. He could also remember the abject heartbreak in her eyes when she'd unknowingly begged him for forgiveness. "I understand that. What I meant was...why _didn't_ you? I thought I was going to have to stop you."

"The plan changed," Cassia answered helplessly. "Draven decided she wanted your mother alive."

"And...if she hadn't...would you have followed those orders?" Jin pressed, not knowing why this was so important still, now that his mother wasn't in immediate danger of death. For some reason, what Cassia said _right now_ mattered.

"I don't know," the rebel agent answered honestly after several tense moments. "I'd like to _think_ I wouldn't have done it, after witnessing her actions, but I truly _don't know._ You've been fighting this noble war of yours for, what, six _hours_ now? And you think you can judge me for my choices?" she demanded in a voice that was half saddened and half angered. "We don't all have the luxury of deciding when and where we want to care about something. Suddenly the Rebellion is real for you? Some of us live it. I've been in this fight since I was _six years old!_ Do you know how I survived all that time? By _trusting_ that I was doing the right thing. If I let myself think anything else, I just- _gah!_ " she snarled in frustration, but before Jin could give any sort of response, Beni was suddenly injecting herself directly between them, pushing them apart.

"Okay, you two have some issues to work out. That much is obvious. Is this really the time or place to be bringing them out?" the pilot snapped as she glanced between them. "I don't see how either of you could've failed to notice it, but we're in a fairly dangerous situation right now. Like it or not, we're all in this together, and the only way we're getting out of here is _together._ Think you two nock bats could manage a truce for the next few hours or so?" she demanded, glancing pointedly between them one last time.

Jin stared past Beni for a long moment, looking at Cassia. The way she was trying _not_ to look at him while still looking at him said she wasn't accustomed to this level of honesty or openness. Neither was he, for that matter. Part of him wanted to cling to his worry and anger, but the other part...well...that part missed their easy battlefield banter from the Holy City – a city that no longer existed. Kriffing hells, they'd known each other all of a day. How did they have war stories already?

"Well...I can't hate you and I'm not sure if that makes this better or worse," he finally admitted, and he wasn't sure if it might have been just a trick of the lightning or not, but he thought he saw the corners of the rebel agent's mouth turn upward in a tiny hopeful smile.

"Then I think I can probably get along if you can," she conceded, reaching past Beni to shake his hand. Jin returned the grip with a small smile of his own. They had things to figure out; that much was true, but Beni was right. For better or worse, they were a team now.

"Everyone settled?" Beni asked with a slightly wry look, and when both parties nodded she clapped them both on the shoulder. "Good. What's the next step?"

"Get back to the ship and hope K's got our comms working," Cassia said, easily snapping back into mission mode. "Infiltration should be easy enough in the aftermath of Erso's arrest, but I'd like to clue Draven in to what we're doing. She's been known to have an...itchy trigger finger, as it were."

"Really? I hadn't picked up on that," Jin couldn't quite help sniping.

"Keep it coming, kid," Cassia sniped back with a shake of her head. "But she'll be useful to us when the time's right. We won't be able to get your mother out of that place without some sort of distraction."

"Wait. _Wait!_ " Beni suddenly called out, stopping them all short when they were just in sight of the downed ship. Then she reached into her flight suit and pulled out a comlink. "I- might have a solution to our problem."

"Is that...a comlink?" Cassia asked slowly, a look of wary anger beginning to spread across her face. "Do you mean to tell me you've been on a little Imperial _leash_ this whole time?"

"No!"

"How could you not be? If you still have an Imperial frequency, they could be tracking you _right now!_ " she hissed.

"It's _not!_ " Beni started to argue, but then quickly amended her statement. "Okay, it is, but it's not military."

"What do you mean?" Jin asked her.

"It's a leisure channel. Gaila set it up for Kari and I to communicate when I was on long runs. Some of the higher ups have channels like this for private use. It's Imperial in that its signal won't be blocked, but it's _not_ military. They have no _reason_ to keep track of it," the pilot explained. "I've only ever used it to keep in touch with Kari, but if you know which frequency you're trying to reach, you _should_ be able to make the connection," she said, hesitating only a moment before passing the comm device to Cassia.

Cassia stared at the comlink in her hand only a moment before nodding. "I can't risk communicating directly with Rebel Intelligence on this frequency. That's a chance of trace I'm just not willing to take. But there _is_ a private frequency that might be of some help to us."

XxX

Alix was between children when the signal came through on her personal frequency. Jaina had finally gone down for her nap, curled up on her and Ziba's bed, but Mira had started to wake, still a bit groggy as she wound her arms around Alix's neck.

But then the call came through, and Alix was briefly alarmed to note that it was an Imperial frequency. Catching Ziba's eye, she nodded down at Mira.

"Take her."

"What's wrong?" the Lasat asked as she took the sleepy toddler from her arms.

"Either the galaxy's ending, or it might just be beginning again."

"Eerie how often those two states coincide," Ziba couldn't seem to help jibing as she tried to hold Mira's attention.

"Li-li, Li-li," the little Togruta hybrid called out plaintively, her lekku twitching in agitation as she reached a hand back to Alix.

"Hush, dear heart," the former Imperial soothed, dropping a kiss to the top of her head before moving away to answer the line. "Cassia, I really hope that's you."

"Good to hear your voice, too, Alixr," the voice of the young Fulcrum agent sounded over the wavelength, garbled by distance or interferance or some such, but still distinctly _hers._

"Thank you for the near heart attack, loth rat," she scolded mildly. "It's been a while since I received a comm from an Imperial frequency. I half-wondered if our location had been jeopardized."

"Well, Beni says that shouldn't be a problem. This is some sort of leisure channel she has."

"Then we're fine," Alix agreed. "Some of the elites keep channels like that for personal use. Your friend must be fairly well connected. What's going on over there?"

"I didn't want to risk communicating directly with Intelligence when I couldn't be sure of the line, coded or no. The Imperial authorities have arrested Gaila Erso, no doubt under charge of treason. The project's engineers have all been executed."

" _Executed?_ " Alix repeated, horrified, but not truly surprised. It was the Empire's way – leave no witnesses, silence every voice. She had seen it happen on many worlds – Geonosis, Kashyyyk, Onderon, Mon Cala...Lasan – a macabre path of death and destruction carved out across the stars. After all, you couldn't be accused if no one stood to accuse you.

"Yes. They must not need them anymore. Their Death Star truly is prepared to annihilate worlds," Cassia's voice came over the link, and Alix couldn't be certain if it was the connection or because of what the young spy had experienced on Jedha, but whatever it was, there was a definite quavering quality to her voice.

"Death Star?" Alix pressed. "Is that- really what they call it?"

"Seriously?" Ziba snorted, unable to help but overhear. "Just when you think they can't get any high and mightier."

"It is," Cassia returned. "And not to talk down Ziba's jokes, but...it's accurate."

"Then no doubt we have little time," Alix said quietly, gaze shifting between Ziba and Mira, engaged in a game of making faces, and Jaina, sleeping peacefully on the bed. If the Empire now had the power to destroy entire _worlds_ , they would come for them – come for _this._ This Death Star had to be stopped. "If Dr. Erso is brought under charges of treason, she will no doubt be turned over to ISB for interrogation on her activities. Either an agent will be dispatched to Eadu directly or she will be turned over to the main branch on Coruscant."

"And if that happens, they will pull from her the fatal flaws she's designed into the weapon. If they're able to repair those flaws, this thing truly will be unstoppable."

"I assume you're preparing for infiltration?" the former ISB agent pressed anxiously, beginning to pace their quarters.

"We are. Anything you can give me on the Eadu facility would be useful at this point."

"Unfortunately, I don't have much. The installation on Eadu was at the highest levels of security clearance and even _my_ credentials didn't go that far. I _did_ do a little sniffing about during my own Fulcrum days, but I wasn't able to turn up anything before Atollon. I can give you a few override codes that _should_ still be good. Getting the clearance to actually enter the facility is difficult, but I imagine internal security will have dropped off somewhat without the TIE defender project to compete against."

"I'll take whatever you have, Alix."

"All right," she returned, going to retrieve her datapad to look up the files Cassia would need. Once located, she ported the two devices together, beginning the process of sending the data across light years of distance. "I'll warn you now, Cassia, that you won't likely be able to talk your way out of any foulups in this place. Much as I grant to your powers of seduction, they will not avail you this time. You will have to rely on whatever identity you steal to enter."

"Noted. Transmission received," Cassia reported.

"I assume you will be needing a distraction incase something goes wrong over there."

"That would be helpful, yes."

"I would volunteer the _Ghost_ ; this is just the sort of thing she excels at, but Heron and Chopper haven't returned from their latest milk run yet. I'll let Draven know what's happened. She'll be able to have a squadron on standby if anything happens."

"Good to know."

"I'll keep the line open until I hear from you. I would advise you not to take any foolish chances, but by this point, I would say that might actually be in the Fulcrum job description."

"Wouldn't surprise me," was Cassia's response, and she could almost picture the way the young spy would shrug over the statement.

"Do come back alive, won't you. The girls will be very sad if you're not around to play hide and seek with them anymore," she said, making light of the goodbye the only way she knew how. Come home alive...because there's someone who will be sad if you don't.

"Well, we can't have the little ones being sad, now can we. Give them a kiss for me. I'll see you on the other side," Cassia finished before going silent.

"On the other side," Alix returned, keeping the line open as she'd said she would.

"Really think she can pull this one off?" Ziba asked her, hardly aware of the youngling draped over her shoulder getting her fingers tangled in her long purple hair.

"She has to," the former Imperial said in a quiet voice as she moved across to her lover, entwining their fingers as Ziba leaned down to press their foreheads together.

Though she had seen some unbelievable things since joining up with the Rebellion, the constant, unshakable faith of many of its members still sometimes eluded her entrenched Imperial thinking – the urge to cut losses and give up on lost causes. That wasn't an option in the Rebellion. It was either hope...or nothing at all. Drawing strength from Ziba, she pressed her lips briefly against the Lasat's, drawing in her conviction like oxygen.

"If she fails now, all may well be lost. She _has to._ "

**Author's Note:**

> Now with added Tumblr! <https://anathtsurugi.tumblr.com/>


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